How the Israelis could have blown up Hezbollah’s communication devices from afar
Our team spoke to two cybersecurity experts who said that the pager explosions in Lebanon on September 17 were caused by explosives placed in the devices. The pagers’ software had also been modified so that the explosion would occur upon reception of a particular message. A similar system likely caused the wave of walkie-talkie explosions on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 18.
At least 12 people died and nearly 2,800 people were injured when a huge number of pagers belonging to members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday, September 17, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Devices detonated all across southern Lebanon as well as in a suburb south of Beirut in an attack that is thought to have been carried out by Israel, though, for the time being, it has not responded to accusations.
Hezbollah started using pagers instead of smartphones several months ago. These small, wireless devices can receive messages from radio signals.
Changing devices to reinforce security
Gérôme Billois, an expert in cybersecurity for the consultancy firm Wavestone, said that Hezbollah made this change in order to reinforce its communications security.
"Hezbollah was afraid of espionage. They were afraid that their phones would be infiltrated and that conversations would be listened to. They were afraid of people gaining access to data and location information about members of Hezbollah. So they decided to leave the world of cellphones and go back to an earlier time of pagers. This news was widely leaked, which is perhaps what sparked the idea for this attack,” he told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday, September 17.
