Pager Blow-Up Can This Happen to Smartphones?
Lebanon witnessed today a second wave of wireless communication device explosions, as news reports indicated that a new wave of explosions targeted wireless audio communication devices called walkie-talkies, which were also used by Hezbollah elements.
This comes after the first wave that Lebanon witnessed yesterday , when thousands of wireless communication devices called pagers, which were used by Hezbollah members, exploded, killing 12 people so far, including children, and injuring more than 3,000 people. The repercussions of the explosions yesterday also extended to Syria, where injuries were recorded in various areas.
These incidents have raised many questions about how such explosions occur, and whether this could happen again with modern devices such as smartphones , wireless headphones such as Airpods, and other devices that we carry in our hands all the time?
First, what are pagers and walkie-talkies:
To understand what happened, let's first know what devices exploded today and yesterday. A pager is a portable wireless electronic device that was commonly used before the advent of mobile phones. It was used to receive text messages or notifications that contained the caller's phone number to request to contact him later. The device works by sending signals over wireless networks.
These devices were used for quick communication in emergency situations or in situations where individuals could not answer calls directly. After the advent of smart mobile phones, the use of pagers decreased significantly, but they are still used in some sectors, such as healthcare, due to the need for quick and reliable communication.
There are two main types of pagers:
- Receive-only pagers: These are devices designed to receive messages or notifications from specific senders, and cannot be used to send messages. They were commonly used in hospitals and factories, where the goal was to notify employees of new assignments or emergencies.
- Pagers: These are devices designed to send and receive text messages, however their capabilities are very limited compared to today's smartphones.
Pagers appeared in the 1950s and evolved significantly over the following decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were popular among doctors, businessmen, and government officials. However, with the advent of mobile phones in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the use of pagers began to decline significantly, and they are now considered an obsolete technology.
However, doctors in hospitals still prefer these devices to deliver messages quickly and accurately, and pagers are routinely used in medical facilities in Lebanon.
Walkie-talkies, also known as voice radios, are small electronic devices used for direct voice communication between two or more people over short to medium distances. These devices work by sending and receiving wireless signals, allowing for instant two-way conversations.
Hezbollah members have relied on pagers and walkie-talkies to avoid interception of their communications by Israeli intelligence, allowing them to send encrypted messages without revealing their locations.
Second, how did the explosion happen?
Since the moment pagers started exploding in Lebanon, many theories have been circulating about the mechanism used to transform these simple and old electronic devices into dangerous weapons that have claimed the lives of many people.
Reports so far have shown that this was not just a simple cyber attack, but a complex, multi-stage operation. The theory that a lithium battery could be heated by a wireless signal to explode in this way is very difficult and unconvincing, because the overheating of the battery only causes it to burn, not explode. Therefore, the most logical thing here is to booby-trap the devices with explosive materials during the manufacturing stage.
The New York Times quoted informed officials as saying that Israel planted explosives inside a batch of pagers that Hezbollah imported from a Taiwanese company earlier this year.
Officials said that Hezbollah had ordered more than 3,000 wireless communication devices from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, and that Israel had planted small amounts of explosives next to the batteries of these devices with the aim of carrying out a large-scale bombing operation targeting Hezbollah members and its allies in the region.
Some officials also said that the pagers ordered by Hezbollah from Taiwanese company Gold Apollo were tampered with before arriving in Lebanon, and most of the explosive devices were AR924s, although three other models from the same company were also included in the shipment.
The targeted pagers received a fake signal that appeared to come from Hezbollah leadership, and this signal served as the ignition switch that activated the previously planted explosives. According to eyewitnesses, the explosions were preceded by warning audible signals.
Independent cybersecurity experts who studied footage of the attacks said the force and speed of the explosions were clearly caused by some type of explosive material.
Mikko Hypoinen, a cybersecurity expert at WithSecure and a cybercrime advisor to Europol, confirmed that these wireless devices did not explode due to a normal technical malfunction or cyber breach, but were deliberately modified to cause explosions of this size and power, which indicates a careful planning process.
“I don’t think this is a security breach, because getting batteries to do anything more than burn is very difficult and unconvincing,” said security expert Robert Graham. “The most plausible thing is that someone bribed the factory to introduce explosives.”
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo , which trademarks the devices, said it only authorized its name to be used on the AR-924 pagers and that the devices were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, a company based in Budapest, Hungary.
The Hungarian government denied the matter, with Zoltan Kovács, a spokesman for the Hungarian government, saying in a post on the X platform: “The authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a commercial intermediary, and has no manufacturing or operating site in Hungary.”
He continued: “It has one registered director, at its declared address, and the devices referred to were not in Hungary.”
Third, can it happen with modern devices like smartphones?
The incidents of blowing up pagers yesterday and walkie-talkies today have raised global concerns that other devices such as smartphones, wireless headphones, smart watches , laptops , and even pacemakers could become targets for such attacks, due to the similarity in their mechanism of operation.
Portable electronic devices, such as pagers, run on lithium batteries, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks that target their internal components after tampering with them, as happened with pagers.
A former British Army bomb disposal officer told the Associated Press that any explosive device basically consists of five elements: a container, a battery, a trigger, a detonator and an explosive charge. Pagers already have three of those elements, he said, making them easy to turn into explosive devices.
This means that portable electronic devices will not be at risk of exploding unless they are modified and explosives are planted in them before they are sold. Also, smartphones are less likely to explode when their batteries overheat, as they have a protection system that prevents such incidents from happening, unlike traditional pagers.
Experts believe that the attack on the pagers was a very advanced attack, carried out by Israel in multiple stages in cooperation with other parties. However, they rule out the recurrence of such attacks on a large scale, stressing that consumer devices are not an easy target for such complex operations.
On the other hand, experts pointed to weak supply chains as one of the possible reasons behind this incident. Contract manufacturing companies may exploit these chains to include harmful components in final products, making it difficult to determine responsibility and trace the source of the threat.
To compare this incident with previous incidents, we can recall the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 incident, which occurred in 2016. After the phone was launched in the markets, reports began to appear of phone batteries exploding randomly, which led to minor fires and some users suffering minor burns.
However, the number of these incidents was limited and did not occur simultaneously as happened in Lebanon. Moreover, the battery did not explode at that time as happened in Lebanon, but only burned, and the maximum injury to users was minor burns.
Conclusion:
The incident of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies raises serious concerns about cybersecurity and internet-connected devices, and underscores the need to strengthen security measures at all stages of the product life cycle, from manufacturing to distribution and use.