Also, no guarantee they had the same pager models. (which by I mean that I agree that this could completely be coincidence)
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[…]
According to the sources, the devices were not pagers but walkie-talkies, the hand-held radios.
At least one of the blasts occurred during a funeral organized by Hezbollah for those killed a day earlier when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country.
[…]
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This has got to be prelude to invasion, right? Destroy the ability to communicate, and if you sow utter chaos among the civilian population, so much the better? And every person with any electronic device has got to be looking at it with great suspicion right now!
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My guess is that they made a bulk purchase of pagers to ensure everyone had one, and to not create a trail of evidence with the purchases on the open market.
And the shipment had pagers with a small explosive that could be triggered remotely by calling from a certain number or sending a certain code phrase.
If it’s in the recipients hand or pocket it doesn’t have to be very powerful - look at the damage regular firecrackers can do.
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I am kind of terrified now to carry any connected device that has batteries in it. Is there any reason to think an attack like this couldn’t be done to cellphones? I mean. I want to believe that it can’t b/c “reasons” about better engineering and technology, but I don’t know.
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I can see that. But the walkie-talkies? Did they do a similar mass purchase there? How likely is that? And how many other electronics are adulterated in this manner? (And what other countries just went “Why didn’t we think of that?”
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From what I’ve read, it’s very unlikely that they made the battery explode. A supply chain attack where an actual explosive was added to the device is more likely.
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More about the company linked to the manufacture of the pagers.
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The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source.
I imagine that Hezbollah find it difficult to purchase anything of this nature, which would make it easier to conduct a sting operation if it could be organised through enough layers of cover.
and put a huge stress on the medical services and supplies, these devices seem intended to wound rather than kill outright.
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There are apparently a huge number of eye injuries specifically. I’m seeing reporting today that the beeping just before the explosions was accompanied by a fake text message that people were holding up to read at the moment of the explosion. Maybe the charge was directional and eye injuries were one of the specific goals of this attack.
From NYT:
Also:
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I’ve only seen this here, so not sure if true, fog of war, or propaganda.
One box is for the whole thing, link goes to:
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Yup. One-way pagers are still useful if you need to be notified of something - and (usually) simple enough to audit to ensure that they’re not doing other bad things. That’s very handy while working in sensitive areas which are kind of “SCIF-ish.” It’s a good compromise from going completely analog and RF-shielded which is a hassle.
I guess “bad” was typically in the tracking and bugging realm, but here’s another “BAD” that I hadn’t considered. Perhaps the vetting should include sniffing for things beyond RF, like explosives. It doesn’t take much to hide a lethal bit of energetic material.
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The walkie talkies that exploded were Icom branded, and according to the Icom website they are 100% made in Japan. Also, Icom supplies DoD and the Marines. I guess they are kind of old, though, so I kind of doubt the attack vector goes all the way back to Japan. I bet the marketing people at Icom are unhappy.
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Learning about novel supply chain exploits will quickly get you changing into tinfoil undies and moving into a cave. I’ve been to a few seminars that seriously disturbed me as to how precisely targeted they can be.
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Hmmm, 'nym checks out!
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That incident was not a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (which is what the pager model identified uses). It was caused by an older model CR123A lithium-metal battery, which are known to be significantly more dangerous when abused. In addition, they don’t explode, they vent. This caused an “explosion” because pressure built up in the flashlight battery tube. That’s a significant difference from a plastic body pager.
I used to do prototype RnD/manufacturing on electroexplosive widgets. Blasting caps, but safer and far fancier for defense stuff.
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