Exploding Pagers
First and firmost, this blog is not political. This blog examines security related threats, mostly cybersecurity, for professionals with the aim towards safety and having a calm, good life. Then there are attacks that make pagers explode.
At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, as people shopped for groceries, sat in cafes or drove cars and motorcycles in the afternoon traffic, the pagers in their hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding — leaving […] scenes and panicking bystanders.
[…] The pagers that blew up had apparently been acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members in February to stop using cellphones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.
From the reporting, it very much sounds like a runaway thermal process in the battery. A few things about that. First, the batteries in pagers, even with their long powered on capacity, are small. Very small. Second, from the reporting it doesn’t sound like the pagers beeped before the thermal runaway. And last, given the sheer amount and geographic locations of the people and devices, this was done remotely.
Something for everyone in information security to be keenly aware of: 1) this kind of attack has now been moved on the board from Theoretical, as in we all knew this could be a possibility but anyone with proprietary OS source code from these devices wasn’t talking—to practical. Maybe not practical for your OSINT engineer, but apparently quite practical for government agencies. 2) you, yes you, and everyone you support has had your phone number(s) compromised. Every single one of us. Now, burner numbers might not have been but that is largely irrelevant, it just means those numbers may become ‘friendly fire’ or unintended casualties.
3) you, and everyone you know, is carrying a much, much larger bomb in their pocket, purse, or bag, right now.
Don’t be too paranoid, paranoia is the tool that is used to psychologically win against an opponent. That doesn’t mean Lack of Vigilance, though. And given just the publicly revealed changes in the way conflicts are directed the past 2 1/2 years on top of the capabilities, methods, and resources that civilians have access to, the world in the opinion of this writer, has entered a very new era.
Time to break out Vonnegut, Heinlein, Asimov, and many others to see what our game plans should and should not be.
