On the 17th, multiple pager explosions occurred simultaneously across Lebanon, resulting in at least 9 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries. This unprecedented explosion involving personal electronic devices has drawn significant attention. What concerns many is whether other smart devices equipped with high-energy-density lithium batteries, such as smartphones, smartwatches, or electric cars, could face similar risks if specific signals can trigger such devices to explode.
Why Pagers?
AFP reported that surveillance footage from Lebanon shows that most explosions occurred after the pagers emitted a sound. Many victims picked up their pagers to check, causing sudden explosions that inflicted severe injuries.
Pagers were widely used in the 1980s and 1990s, typically receiving signals from paging towers via radio waves. Although they were quickly replaced by mobile phones, pagers are still used in specific fields. For example, a 2017 study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that nearly 80% of surveyed hospital doctors still used pagers, with about half of the messages related to patient care. “Pagers represent a more reliable form of communication, especially when Wi-Fi or telephone networks fail.”
Compared to mobile networks, which may face service interruptions, connection failures, or interception, pagers use specific frequencies. Pager signals can penetrate steel and metal, while smartphone signals can be blocked. Moreover, since pagers only transmit information one way and do not reveal the user’s location, they are considered more secure. Amidst recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalation, Hezbollah instructed its members to stop using smartphones to avoid Israeli cyber and electronic surveillance.
How Did the Pagers Explode?
The cause of the pager explosions in Lebanon remains the subject of various speculations. Reports indicate that the AR924 model pagers involved used lithium batteries. According to the U.S. website The Drive, initial social media speculation suggested that Israel remotely sent specific signals that overheated the lithium batteries, turning the pagers into “improvised explosive devices.” The Wall Street Journal mentioned that some Hezbollah members reported noticing their pagers heating up and discarding them in time to avoid injury.
However, after analyzing the video footage, experts concluded that battery overheating alone could not have caused the scale of explosions witnessed. Particularly since pagers have low power consumption and small battery capacities, the explosive force would be limited. Mikko Hyppönen, a cybercrime advisor with Europol, noted: “These pagers were likely modified to cause such explosions—the scale and intensity suggest more than just battery issues.” The UK’s Sky News reported that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad may have placed high-explosive PETN next to the pagers’ batteries, using remote technology to increase the battery temperature and trigger the explosives. Al Jazeera cited Lebanese security sources who said that the batch of pagers was intercepted by Mossad five months ago before delivery to Hezbollah, and less than 20 grams of micro-explosives were placed inside each device. The source added that an investigation is underway to determine how the explosives were activated. Some speculate that the modified pagers didn’t require a remote device to trigger them, but could explode after receiving malicious messages that overheated the batteries, igniting the explosives. Other reports suggest that a specific message triggered the pagers to vibrate, prompting users to press a button to stop the vibration, which detonated the explosives, ensuring the user was present at the moment of explosion.
AFP quoted an anonymous source close to Hezbollah, stating that “the exploding pagers are related to the recent import of 1,000 devices by Hezbollah,” and that these devices appear to have been “compromised at the source.” The Drive added that if Israel tampered with the hardware of the pagers, this would involve a vulnerability in the entire pager supply chain. It would require precise knowledge of the specific batches destined for the Middle East and successful interception and modification of the batch intended for Hezbollah—a complex process, but not impossible.
“Billions of Potential Explosive Devices”
Experts warn that using malware to compromise hardware devices is nothing new, but such a large-scale explosion involving personal electronic devices is unprecedented. The Drive also mentioned Israel’s development of the Stuxnet virus, which targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities by altering the speed of uranium-enrichment centrifuges, damaging hundreds of centrifuges. After the Lebanon pager explosions, the terrifying prospect of everyday electronic devices turning into “improvised explosive devices” may no longer seem like science fiction.
The latest reports caution that given the widespread use of smartphones and other smart devices today, and the potential vulnerabilities in their hardware and control software, “even if the pager explosions in Lebanon were caused by other factors, the warning signs couldn’t be clearer.” “We are surrounded by connected devices daily, from smart cars to computer hardware, all equipped with high-energy-density batteries. Attacking such devices is possible. From this perspective, there are billions of potential explosive devices around us.”
U.S. media also noted that even a network attack causing mass explosions of smart device batteries could lead to widespread infrastructure damage, a potential cyberattack that could paralyze society.
Experts analyzing the Lebanon pager explosion concluded that the incident was unlikely caused by simple battery malfunctions but was more consistent with the theory that small explosives were placed inside the pagers. If further investigation confirms that the explosions were caused by tampering with the devices and installing explosives, the threat to the general public would be limited, given the complexity of such operations.
However, if the explosions were caused by malicious network intrusions directly targeting the battery systems of smart devices, as speculated by U.S. media, the implications would be far more significant. Smart devices, typically driven by software and requiring network connections, provide the necessary conditions for malware intrusion. Given the vast number of smart devices in use, even if only a small percentage were compromised, the resulting impact could be enormous. From this perspective, the Lebanon pager explosion serves as a dangerous precedent. On the other hand, most modern smart devices have built-in overheating protection mechanisms, such as reducing power output or shutting down automatically when temperatures are too high, which can help prevent similar incidents.
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