A massive wave of pager explosions across Lebanon and Syria around 3:30 pm local time today has killed at least eight people and injured more than 2,700, according to local officials. Many of the injured appear to be Hezbollah members, although a young girl is said to be among the dead.
The pagers in question allegedly have lithium-ion batteries, which sometimes explode after generating significant heat. The coordinated nature of the attack suggests that some kind of firmware hack or supply chain attack may have given an adversary the ability to trigger a pager explosion at the time of its choosing.
Update, 1:05pm: The WSJ quotes regional security analyst Michael Horowitz as suggesting the attack was likely caused by either 1) malware triggering the batteries to overheat/explode or 2) an actual explosive charge inserted in the devices at some point in the supply chain and then detonated remotely.
“Either way, this is a very sophisticated attack,” Horowitz told the WSJ. “Particularly if this is a physical breach, as this would mean Israel has access to the producer of those devices. This may be part of the message being sent here.”
As you type this on your smart phone
Exactly, and I fucking hate the thing and the addiction it caused. If it wasn’t for the world basically oitcasting me if I didn’t have some device to access literally anything, I would have thrown this trash away years ago. I have no choice. Try going a month without the device for important things, it’s impossible. Society has forced it by restricting hours on key services, forcing accounts for things and sending any and all correspondence/updates through the internet. Society will not permit such things to happen.