Cellular networks down/under attack across the nation

[Chance]

I don't know much about how a router would be configured in this particular use case, but I'm really straining to think of how this could be useful for espionage.

Most encryption takes place at the transport and application layers, and since this equipment is presumably carrying primarily mobile traffic, that seems an unlikely medium to be exhanging worthwhile secrets. Stealing crypto keys doesn't make any sense unless you've intercepted and stored all the traffic going between those routers, and if you can do that without being noticed, sending one dude to get 16 of them one-after-the-other is a pretty dramatic dip in sophistication. And - as has already been mentioned - unless the nonvolatile storage isn't encrypted, you'd have to get the keys in situ, which would negate the point of stealing the entire physical thing.

Sounds like a whackjob trying to halt the spread of coronavirus by taking out 5G or something.

[TheRoland]

I don't know much about how a router would be configured in this particular use case, but I'm really straining to think of how this could be useful for espionage.

Most encryption takes place at the transport and application layers, and since this equipment is presumably carrying primarily mobile traffic, that seems an unlikely medium to be exhanging worthwhile secrets. Stealing crypto keys doesn't make any sense unless you've intercepted and stored all the traffic going between those routers, and if you can do that without being noticed, sending one dude to get 16 of them one-after-the-other is a pretty dramatic dip in sophistication. And - as has already been mentioned - unless the nonvolatile storage isn't encrypted, you'd have to get the keys in situ, which would negate the point of stealing the entire physical thing.

Sounds like a whackjob trying to halt the spread of coronavirus by taking out 5G or something.

I think an expert could get a lot of intelligence on internal network topology from dumping the config off of ISP's routers.

But you would not need 16 of them. All the routers from a cell site are going to be more or less the same.

I think wackjob is a good bet, and the complaint is unsealed if anyone wants to go read it. I didn't want to pay the PACER fee.

[SeriousStudent]

If it was 1 or 2 units, I could see maybe trying to get config/key/password data out of them, for future attacks. But 16? That sounds more like black market wholesale.
As for "user" data... that'd for the most part be stored in volatile RAM, and once you killed power it'd be gone.

Yup, you lose the run config on Cisco gear when the electrons go bye bye.

I think the dude was just trying to steal shit and resell.

[OlongJohnson]

But 16? That sounds more like black market wholesale.

Aren’t the cartels setting up their own cell networks? I imagine it’s not a simple matter of placing a PO with a strait distributor to buy these things.

[Caballoflaco]

Aren’t the cartels setting up their own cell networks? I imagine it’s not a simple matter of placing a PO with a strait distributor to buy these things.

With cartel money I’m pretty sure they could simply place an order to a factory in China face to face using one of the guys they have there already making deals with factories that supply all the precursor chemicals they use for cooking meth and processing other drugs.

[hufnagel]

Maybe. Maybe it's cheaper and quicker to just steal them?
Just because you have a literal box truck of money, doesn't mean you need to spend like you have a literal box truck of money.