How Israel may have turned pagers into a weapon to attack Hezbollah

[Pelican Press 0]

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How ******* may have turned pagers into a ******* to ******* Hezbollah

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across Beirut may have been the result of ******-trapped devices rather than a cyber *******, security experts have suggested.

The pagers, which were being used by Hezbollah officials to communicate privately, detonated across the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, reportedly injuring thousands of people, including civilians and militant fighters.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the explosions, but the dramatic ******* triggered an obvious question: how did they do it?

One theory is the explosions were the result of an unprecedented cyber *******, with hackers somehow overheating and destroying the pagers remotely.

Another is supply chain sabotage, with ******* able to ****** trap hundreds of pagers destined for use by Hezbollah.

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The pagers, which were being used by Hezbollah officials to communicate privately, detonated across the Lebanese capital on Tuesday

A cyber ******* could have involved manipulating these devices and causing their batteries to overheat. Lithium batteries will smoke or melt if overheated and can catch on *****, with past fires reported on gadgets including smartphones, e-bikes or scooters.

However, cyber security and military experts said such an ******* would be unlikely to cause the kinds of sudden explosions seen in footage across social media.

Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, said: “I’ve heard of lithium ion batteries spontaneously igniting but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”

He said these kinds of batteries seemed to catch ***** rather than “explode,” which contrasted with the social media footage.

A more likely cause was sabotage using an “old-fashioned ****** trap”, he said.

He said it could have been an “supply chain *******” where the ******** Defence Force “hid a little C4 (a type of explosive) inside and set it to trigger upon receipt of a particular message or even just timed using device timer”.

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The impacted devices appeared to include “rugged” pagers developed by Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, according to reporters at the website Bellingcat.

The pagers – small wireless communications devices designed to send short text messages –had been new models brought by officials at Hezbollah in recent months, multiple security sources also told Reuters.

Tony Ingesson, a former ***** disposal expert with the Swedish armed forces and an assistant professor at Lund University, also supported the ********** theory.

“The footage I have seen indicates an explosive substance of some sort. A very small charge is enough to injure someone. You don’t need much. The advantage here is it is a device people will carry on their person,” he said.

Ken Munro, founder of cyber security company Pen Test Partners, said: “I’m leaning hard toward a supply chain *******, as to remotely cause a battery to explode in such a fashion would be extremely challenging.”

Footage on social media showed dozens of individuals being treated for injuries in the wake of the blasts, which occurred around 3.45pm local time, with wounds to their hands, fingers or torso.

A former British army munitions officer told the BBC the devices could have been packed with as little as 10 to 20 grams of high explosive hidden inside fake electrical parts.

The former officer, who asked not to be named, said such a package could have been armed by a signal, with the next person to use the device triggering an **********.

Bogdan Botezatu, head of threat research at cyber security company Bitdefender, said on X: “Hacked pagers and phones don’t randomly explode unless they are already attached to a nice ball of Semtex.

“Worst case, (lithium ion) batteries first catch on *****, then they go kaboom.”

The ******* threatens to

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, with ******* and Hezbollah engaging in repeated strikes since Oct 7 last year.

A statement by the Iran-backed group said ******* would get “fair punishment”.

Hezbollah had been known to use pagers as a low-tech solution to avoid ******** signals intelligence. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, had previously urged fighters not to carry mobile phones, warning they were “deadly agents”.

He has previously said that smartphones were “surveillance devices in your pockets. If you are looking for the ******** agent, look at the phone in your hands”.

The Wall Street journal reported that medical staff across Lebanon were discarding their own pagers, which are routinely used in hospitals around the world to send rapid text messages to colleagues.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency blamed the ******* on the “handheld pagers system [which] was detonated using advanced technology”.

Hezbollah officials, meanwhile, said the ******* represented the group’s “biggest security breach” since Oct 7 last year.

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