Tag: cell phone towers

Why cell phone service is down in Maui — and when it could be restored | CNN Business

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Thousands of people in Maui are without cell service as the wildfires continue to rage out of control on the island, preventing people from calling emergency services or updating loved ones about their status. It could take days or even weeks to get the networks back up and running.

“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.

Although strong winds can sometimes threaten cell towers, most are strong enough to handle the worst that even a Category 5 hurricane can bring. Fire, however, complicates the issue.

“When the fires get too close to cell sites, they will obviously burn equipment, antennas, and feedlines,” said Glenn O’Donnell, VP of research at market research firm Forrester. “In extreme cases, they will also weaken the towers, leading some to collapse. The smoke and flames can also attenuate signals because of the particulate density in the air.”

If a tower collapses, cell networks could take months to restore. But if carriers are able and prepared to do restorations with mobile backup units, it could bring limited service back within hours, O’Donnell said. Wireless carriers often bring in COWs (Cells On Wheels), COLTs (Cells On Light Trucks), and GOaTs (Generators on Trailers) in emergencies to provide backup service when cell towers go down.

Power outages are also a threat to cell phone towers. The Maui disaster has already wiped out power to at least 14,000 homes and businesses in the area, according to PowerOutage.us. Many towers have backup power generators, but they have limited capacity to keep towers running.

Cell towers have back-up technology built in, but this is typically done through optical fiber cables or microwave (wireless) links, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, senior researcher at ABI Research. However, if something extraordinary happens, such as interaction with rampant fires, these links may experience “catastrophic failures and leave cells without a connection to the rest of the world.”

And, in an emergency, a spike in call volume can overload the system – even if people are able to get reception.

“Even cells that have a good service may experience outages due to the sheer volume of communication happening at once,” Mavrakis said. “Everyone in these areas may be trying to contact relatives or the authorities at once, saturating the network and causing an outage. This is easier to correct though and network operators may put in place additional measures to render them operational quickly.”

A T-Mobile spokesperson said the company is monitoring the situation and assessing the fire’s impact on its equipment in the area.

“When conditions are safe, our Emergency Management Team will deploy portable, agile satellite and microwave solutions that will restore service in impacted areas,” the spokesperson said. “We also have portable generators ready to deploy to sites affected by commercial power loss, and our Emergency Response Team is working with FEMA and the state of Hawaii to support firefighters and other first responders, organizations and communities.”

An AT&T spokesperson told CNN it is also assessing the’ impact to its wireless network and “will continue to coordinate closely with local utility companies on restoration progress.” The company is waiving talk, text and data overage charges during this time.

Verizon did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Satellite networks, however, continue to operate regardless of what’s happening on the ground. This means satellite phones, which often feature large antennas, can help provide voice, SMS, and data services anywhere on Earth, even without cell service.

Satellite phones have been popularized over the years by hikers, emergency responders and intrepid travelers, but they are are expensive and are not mainstream products. However, some newer smartphone models – including the latest model iPhone 14 and some phones built by Motorola and Huawei – offer built-in satellite connectivity, which allows the sending of SOS messages via satellites.

For example, Apple’s free Emergency SOS via satellite service, which launched last year, allows iPhone users to contact dedicated dispatchers in emergency situations via satellites. When a user attempts to call 911 and is unable to get on a cell network, they will be automatically redirected to the service’s dispatchers where they can answer a questionnaire with short multiple choice questions to share information quickly. The dispatchers also receive their coordinates, medical ID and emergency contact information.

Apple told CNN the feature is reserved for connections to emergency services and does not allow users to contact friends and family. For anyone who has access to a Wi-Fi connection while wearing an Apple Watch, the Walkie-Talkie feature could also be used to send messages or make calls. However, Wi-Fi networks can also fail when optical fiber networks are disrupted.

Although it’s unclear how long cell phone service could be down in affected regions, companies have been able to bring connectivity to disaster regions in the past. In 2017, Google worked with AT&T and T-Mobile to deploy its Project Loon balloons to deliver Internet to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Hawaii’s Red Cross recently tweeted that people can call 1-800-RED-CROSS to see if their loved ones are at a local shelter.

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August 2, 2023
Portable hotspots arrive in Maui to bring internet to residents and tourists | CNN Business

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CNN
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Portable mobile hotspots have arrived in Maui to help bring internet service to the thousands of people who may have been unable to call for help since the wildfires started to rage out of control on the island.

Verizon told CNN on Thursday its teams are currently deploying the first batch of satellite-based mobile hotspots at evacuation sites in areas of greatest need, particularly the west side of the island, west of Maalaea, Lahaina and Northern Kapalua.

Verizon’s larger equipment, which is being barged over from Honolulu, is expected to arrive later in the day. This includes COLTs (Cells on Light Trucks) — a mobile site on wheels that connects to a carrier’s service via a satellite link — and a specialized satellite trailer used to provide service to a cell site that has a damaged fiber connection.

“Our team is closely monitoring the situation on the ground and our network performance,” a Verizon spokesperson told CNN. “Verizon engineers on the island are working to restore service in impacted areas as quickly and safely as possible.”

The company said it is working closely with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Maui County Emergency Operations Center to prioritize its network recovery.

Other carriers continue to mobilize their efforts, too. An AT&T spokesperson said it is working with local public safety officials to deploy SatCOLTs (Satellite Cells on Light Trucks), drones with cell support and other solutions across the island, as equipment comes in from neighboring islands.

Meanwhile, a T-Mobile spokesperson said its cell sites are “holding up well during the fires” but commercial power outages may be disrupting the service for some customers. “As soon as conditions allow, our priority is to deploy teams with portable generators that will bring temporary power back to our sites,” the spokesperson said.

The Maui disaster has already wiped out power to at least 14,000 homes and businesses in the area, according to PowerOutage.us. Many cell towers have backup power generators but they have limited capacity to keep towers running.

“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.

Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T said they are waiving call, text and data overage charges for Maui residents during this time.

Although strong winds can sometimes threaten cell towers, most are strong enough to handle the worst that even a Category 5 hurricane can bring. Fire, however, complicates the issue.

“When the fires get too close to cell sites, they will obviously burn equipment, antennas, and feedlines,” said Glenn O’Donnell, VP of research at market research firm Forrester. “In extreme cases, they will also weaken the towers, leading some to collapse. The smoke and flames can also attenuate [reduce the strength of] signals because of the particulate density in the air.”

If a tower collapses, cell networks could take months to be restored. But if carriers are able and prepared to do restorations with mobile backup units, it could bring limited service back within hours, O’Donnell said. Wireless carriers often bring in COWs (Cells On Wheels), COLTs and GOaTs (Generator on a Trailer) in emergencies to provide backup service when cell towers go down.

Cell towers have backup technology built in, but this is typically done through optical fiber cables or microwave (wireless) links, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, senior researcher at ABI Research. However, if something extraordinary happens, such as interaction with rampant fires, these links may experience “catastrophic failures and leave cells without a connection to the rest of the world.”

And, in an emergency, a spike in call volume can overload the system — if people are able to get reception.

“Even cells that have a good service may experience outages due to the sheer volume of communication happening at once,” Mavrakis said. “Everyone in these areas may be trying to contact relatives or the authorities at once, saturating the network and causing an outage. This is easier to correct, though, and network operators may put in place additional measures to render them operational quickly.”

Although it’s unclear how long cell phone service could be down in affected regions, companies have been able to bring connectivity to disaster regions in the past. In 2017, Google worked with AT&T and T-Mobile to deploy its Project Loon balloons to deliver internet service to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Project Loon has since shut down.

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August 2, 2023
Did your cell phone make a screeching noise today? Here’s why | CNN Business

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Today was the day for the US government’s big emergency alert drill, which sent a test message to every TV, radio and cell phone in the nation.

Starting at approximately 2:20 pm ET on Wednesday, the federal government began conducting a nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The EAS portion of the test sent an emergency alert to all radios and televisions, while the WEA portion of the drill sent an alert to all consumer cell phones.

The test was being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission. Its purpose was to ensure that the systems in place continue to be an effective means of warning the public about emergencies at a national level.

Essentially, what this means is that hundreds of millions of cell phones around the country made a screeching alert noise at approximately the same time today, beginning around 2:20 pm ET. Radio and TV stations also blared a test alert at around the same time. But there was no action required from you after receiving the free message — it was just a test.

Here are answers to all of your burning questions about today’s emergency alert test.

While some recent models of mobile phones may include a setting to opt-out of tests and alerts, none of these settings will affect the 2023 national test, FEMA has said.

That means if your mobile phone was on and receiving service from a participating wireless provider, you will likely received the national Wireless Emergency Alert test, the agency added.

There are, however, three conditions which would prevent the cell phone alert from getting delivered to a device. If your phone is turned off, has airplane mode switched on, or is not connected or associated with a cell tower, then it did not receive the message.

Survivors of domestic violence and people in abusive relationships often have a secret or emergency phone that they don’t want their partner or others to know about. On a call with reporters Tuesday, a senior FEMA official said the agency was aware of these concerns stemming from survivors of domestic violence and their allies. The official recommended that people who do not want a secret phone to be revealed to turn their phone completely off ahead of the 2:20 pm ET test — and not to turn it back on for thirty minutes, or until after 2:50 pm ET.

If you wanted to be cautious, you could also wait until you are in a safe place before turning your phone back on.

Educators are braced themselves for some disruption this afternoon, as the test impacting cell phones occurred during school hours for most of the country.

On the call with reporters, the senior FEMA official recommended that educators, as much as possible, try to use this as a teaching opportunity about federal emergency management and preparedness initiatives.

The national test cannot be used to monitor, locate or lock your phone, FEMA has said. The test is also using broadcast technology and does not collect any of your data.

All cell phones should have received an alert and an accompanying text message that reads: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

The free text message was sent in either English or Spanish, depending on the language settings of your device. The text was accompanied by a unique tone and vibration that is meant to make the alert accessible to the entire public, including people with disabilities, FEMA has said.

The test was broadcast by cell towers for approximately 30 minutes beginning at 2:20 pm ET, FEMA said. During this time, all compatible wireless phones that were switched on, within range of an active cell tower, and whose wireless providers participates in WEA tests should have received the text message.

Although the test will be transmitting for approximately 30 minutes, you should only have received the alert message once.

Meanwhile, all radios and televisions also broadcast a test emergency alert at the same time as part of the broader test. This message, which ran for approximately one minute, stated: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”

Can the emergency alert impact my body?

In short: No. There are a number of false claims circulating online with regard to the test alert, including some conspiracy theories that incorrectly allege the sound emitted as part of the national test can impact your body at the cellular level. This is false.

“FEMA is not aware of any adverse health effects caused by the audio signal,” the agency has stated.

And while this is a national test, it uses the same technology and infrastructure that state and local authorities rely on to send localized Amber Alerts or extreme weather warnings, a senior FEMA official emphasized to reporters on Tuesday. In a frequently asked question sheet released by FEMA ahead of Wednesday’s test, the agency stated: “The audio signal that will be used in the National Test is the same combination of audio tones that has been used since 1963 in the original Emergency Broadcast System.”

If you have a mobile phone that was switched on, not on airplane mode, within range of an active cell tower and on a network where wireless providers participate in Wireless Emergency Alerts then you should have received the test message on Wednesday afternoon by 2:50 pm ET.

If you are trying to figure out why you did not receive an alert when you should have, or have any other feedback on the test, members of the public can write to the email address: FEMA-National-Test@fema.dhs.gov.

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August 2, 2023
Burner phones. Pizza crust. DNA on burlap. A New York architect was charged with killing 3 women in Gilgo Beach serial killings cold case | CNN

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A New York architect was charged with murder in connection to the killings of three of the women who became known as the “Gilgo Four,” according to the Suffolk County District Attorney, in a case that baffled authorities for more than a decade in suburban Long Island.

Rex Heuermann – who told his attorney he is not the killer – was taken into custody for some of the Gilgo Beach murders, an unsolved case tied to at least 10 sets of human remains discovered since 2010, authorities said.

The case was broken open thanks to cell phone data, credit card bills and DNA testing, which ultimately led them to arrest Heuermann, 59, authorities said.

Heuermann was charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in each of the three killings – Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010 – according to the indictment. A grand jury made the six charges, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

He is also the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to a bail application from prosecutors. Heuermann has not been charged with that homicide but the investigation “is expected to be resolved soon,” the document says.

This is the first arrest in the long-dormant case, which terrorized residents and sparked conflicting theories about whether a serial killer was responsible.

Tierney said authorities, fearing the suspect might be tipped off they were closing in, moved to arrest him Thursday night.

“We were playing before a party of one,” he told reporters. “We knew the person responsible for these murders would be looking at us.”

See our live coverage here

Authorities said once Heuermann was identified in early 2022 as a suspect, they watched him and his family and got DNA samples from items that were thrown away.

During the initial examination of one of the victims’ skeletal remains and materials discovered in the grave, the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory recovered a male hair from the “bottom of the burlap” the killer used to wrap her body, according to the bail application.

A surveillance team later gathered a swab of Heuermann’s DNA from leftover crust in a pizza box he threw in the trash, the district attorney said.

Hair believed to be from Rex Heuermann’s wife was found on or near three of the murder victims, prosecutors allege in the bail application, citing DNA testing. The DNA came from 11 bottles inside a garbage can outside the Heuermann home, the court document says.

Evidence shows Heuermann’s wife and children were outside of the state at the times when the three women were killed, Tierney said.

The hairs found in 2010 were degraded and DNA testing at the time couldn’t yield results but improvements in technology eventually gave investigators the DNA answers they needed.

Heuermann was in tears after his arrest, his court appointed attorney, Michael Brown, said Friday.

“I did not do this,” Brown said Heuermann told him during their conversation after his arrest.

Heuermann was remanded without bail. He entered a not guilty plea through his attorney. His next court date is scheduled for August 1.

Police were still searching his home Friday night, according to a CNN team outside the house.

Heuermann, who a source familiar with the case said is a father of two, is a registered architect who has owned the New York City-based architecture and consulting firm, RH Consultants & Associates, since 1994, according to his company’s website.

In 2022, Heuermann was interviewed for the YouTube channel “Bonjour Realty.” He spoke about his career in architecture, and said he was born and raised in Long Island. He began working in Manhattan in 1987.

CNN has reached out to Heuermann’s company for comment.

The remains of the Gilgo Four were found in bushes along a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway in Oak Beach over a two-day period in 2010.

The skeletal remains of Barthelemy were discovered near Gilgo Beach on December 11. Barthelemy, who was a sex worker, was last seen July 12, 2009, at her apartment when she told a friend she was going to see a man, according to a Suffolk County website about the killings.

The remains of three other women were found on December 13, 2010: Brainard-Barnes, who advertised escort services on Craigslist and was last seen in early June 2007 in New York City; Amber Lynn Costello, who also advertised escort services and was last seen leaving her North Babylon home in early September 2010; and Waterman, who also advertised as an escort and was last seen in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

Tierney said of the women, “They were buried in a similar fashion, in a similar location, in a similar way. All the women were petite. They all did the same thing for a living. They all advertised the same way. Immediately there were similarities with regard to the crime scenes.”

Tierney said the killer tried to conceal the bodies, wrapping them in camouflaged burlap, the type used by hunters.

The suspect made taunting phone calls to Barthelemy’s sister, “some of which resulted in a conversation between the caller, who was a male, and a relative of Melissa Barthelemy, in which the male caller admitted killing and sexually assaulting Ms. Barthelemy,” according to the bail application.

The court document alleges cell phone and credit card billing records show numerous instances where Heuermann was in the general locations as the burner phones used to call the three victim,s “as well as the use of Brainard-Barnes and (Barthelemy’s) cellphones when they use used to check voicemail and make taunting phone calls after the women disappeared.”

The district attorney said the killer got a new burner phone before each killing.

The case against Heuermann came together in the two years since the restart of the investigation by Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, authorities said.

Harrison put together a task force including county police detectives, investigators from the sheriff’s office, state police and the FBI.

Tierney said the task force held its first meeting in February 2022.

“Six weeks later, on March 14, 2022, the name Rex Heuermann was first mentioned as a suspect in the Gilgo case,” Tierney said. “A New York state investigator was able to identify him in a database.”

Investigators had gone backward through phone records collected from both midtown Manhattan and the Massapequa Park area – two areas where a “burner phone” used by the alleged killer were detected, according to court documents.

Authorities then narrowed records collected by cell towers to thousands, then down to hundreds, and finally down to a handful of people who could match a suspect.

From there, authorities worked to focus on people who lived in the area of the cell tower who also matched a physical description given by a witness who had seen the suspected killer.

In the narrowed pool, they searched for a connection to a green pickup a witness had seen the suspect driving, the sources said.

Investigators found Heuermann, who matched a witness’s physical description, lived close to the Long Island cell site and worked near the New York City cell sites where other calls were captured.

They also learned he had often driven a green pickup, registered to his brother. But they needed more than circumstantial evidence.

When investigators searched Heuermann’s computer, they found a disturbing internet search history, including 200 searches aimed at learning about the status of the investigation, Tierney said Friday.

His searches also included queries for torture porn and “depictions of women being abused, being raped and being killed,” Tierney said.

The DA said the suspect was still compulsively searching for photos of the victims and their relatives.

Heuermann was trying to find the relatives, he added.

The murder mystery had confounded county officials for years. In 2020, they found a belt with initials that may have been handled by the suspect and launched a website to collect new tips in the investigation.

Police said some victims identified had advertised prostitution services on websites such as Craigslist.

The mystery began in 2010 when police discovered the first set of female remains among the bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property on Gilgo Beach while searching for Shannan Gilbert, a missing 23-year-old woman from Jersey City, New Jersey.

By the time Gilbert’s body was found one year later on neighboring Oak Beach, investigators had unearthed 10 sets of human remains strewn across two Long Island counties.

The grim discoveries generated widespread attention in the region and sent waves of fear across some communities on Long Island’s South Shore.

Authorities later said they believe Gilbert’s death may have been accidental and not related to the Gilgo Beach slayings.

Still, Gilbert’s disappearance led to the discovery of others.

Additional remains were uncovered in neighboring Gilgo Beach and in Nassau County, about 40 miles east of New York City. They included a female toddler, an Asian male and a woman initially referred to as “Jane Doe #6,” investigators said.

In 2020, police identified “Jane Doe #6” was as Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother who went missing two decades earlier.

Mack’s partial remains were first discovered near Gilgo Beach in 2000, with additional dismembered remains found in 2011, according to the Suffolk County police.

John Ray, a lawyer who represents the family of Shannon Gilbert – whose disappearance and search led to the discovery of “Gilgo Four” and other remains – said Friday he does not know if Heuermann is also responsible for her death.

“We breathe a great sigh of relief,” Ray said. “We’re happy the police are finally taking a positive step in this respect, but this is just the beginning … This is just the edge of a bigger body of water, shall we say, of murder that has taken place.”

Ray also represents the family Gilgo Beach victim Jessica Taylor.

“We don’t know if he is connected to Jessica Taylor’s murder,” he said.

Jasmine Robinson, a family representative for Taylor, said she’s “hopeful for the future and hopeful that a connection is made” to resolve the other cases.

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July 14, 2023
A look at China’s history of spying in the US | CNN Politics

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The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that violated American airspace this week has fueled a diplomatic crisis with the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing.

But the two countries have a long history of spying on each other.

The US has sought to collect its own intelligence about the Chinese government, using methods that include flying surveillance aircraft over disputed islands claimed by Beijing, human sources and signal intercepts.

Still, American officials have sought to distinguish US actions from what they say is the more brazen espionage being carried out by the Chinese government.

US officials say Beijing uses every tool at its disposal to gain a strategic advantage over the United States, its primary geopolitical rival. But Chinese officials say a similar thing – Beijing has in the past repeatedly accused the US of espionage.

China denies that the balloon currently above the US is involved in any kind of espionage, claiming it is a “civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes” that has been blown off course.

Here’s what we know about how China spies on the US:

While the suspected Chinese balloon spotted in the skies above multiple US states this week prompted an uproar from Republicans and Democrats alike, it is not the first time this kind of activity has been observed.

A US official said Friday there had been similar incidents over Hawaii and Guam in recent years, while another official on Thursday said, “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”

US officials have said the flight path of the latest balloon, first spotted over Montana on Thursday, could potentially take it over a “number of sensitive sites.” They say they are taking steps to “protect against foreign intelligence collection.”

What’s less clear is why Chinese spies would want to use a balloon, rather than a satellite to gather information.

Using balloons as spy platforms goes back to the early days of the Cold War. Since then, the US has used hundreds of them to monitor its adversaries, said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and former Royal Australian Air Force officer.

But with the advent of modern satellite technology enabling the gathering of overflight intelligence data from space, the use of surveillance balloons had been going out of fashion.

Or at least until now.

Recent advances in the miniaturization of electronics mean the floating intelligence platforms may be making a comeback in the modern spying toolkit.

“Balloon payloads can now weigh less, and so the balloons can be smaller, cheaper and easier to launch” than satellites, Layton said.

Outside Malmstrom Air Force Base in central Montana, spread across 13,800 square miles of open plains, more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles stand at the ready, buried deep underground in missile silos. These Minuteman III rockets are capable of delivering nuclear warheads at least 6,000 miles away and are part of the US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear and missile arsenal.

Nestled among these silos are clusters of cell phone towers operated by a small rural wireless carrier. According to Federal Communications Commission filings, those cell towers use Chinese technology that security experts have warned in recent years could allow China to gather intelligence while also potentially mounting network attacks in the areas surrounding this and other sensitive military installations.

Huawei, the Chinese company that makes the tower technology, is shunned by the major US wireless carriers and the federal government over national security concerns.

Yet its technology is widely deployed by a number of small, federally subsidized wireless carriers that buy cheaper Chinese-made hardware to place atop their cell towers. In some cases, those cellular networks provide exclusive coverage to rural areas close to US military bases, CNN previously reported.

In 2018, the heads of major US intelligence agencies – including the FBI and CIA – warned Americans against using Huawei devices and products. Security experts say that having its technology deployed so close to the nation’s arsenal of ICBMs could pose a far greater threat.

In 2017, the Chinese government offered to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.      

But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington, just two miles from the US Capitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources told CNN last year.  

Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which US Customs officials are barred from examining, the sources said.    

Federal officials quietly killed the project before construction started.

The canceled garden is just one of the projects that has caught the eye of the FBI and other federal agencies during what US security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past decade.        

Since 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stonewalled what they saw as efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities.    

Some of the things the FBI uncovered pertained to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest.

According to multiple sources, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons.

CNN has also reported that Beijing has been leaning on expatriate Chinese scientists, businesspeople and even students in the US, according to current and former US intelligence officials, lawmakers and several experts.

There have been a number of high-profile arrests. In January, a former graduate student in Chicago was sentenced to eight years in prison for spying for the Chinese government by gathering information on engineers and scientists in the United States.

Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who came to the US to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013 and later enlisted in the US Army Reserves, was arrested in 2018.

The 31-year-old was convicted last September of acting illegally as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and of making a material false statement to the US Army.

According to the Justice Department, Ji was tasked with providing an intelligence officer with biographical information on individuals for potential recruitment as Chinese spies. The individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the US, some of whom worked for American defense contractors.

Ji’s spying was part of an effort by Chinese intelligence to obtain access to advanced aerospace and satellite technologies being developed by US companies, the Justice Department said.

Ji was working at the direction of Xu Yanjun, a deputy division director at the Jiangsu provincial branch of the MMS, the DOJ statement said.

Xu, a career intelligence officer, was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison for plotting to steal trade secrets from several US aviation and aerospace companies. Xu was also the first Chinese spy extradited to the US for trial, after being detained in Belgium in 2018 following an FBI investigation.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first name.

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February 5, 2023