Pagers explode across Lebanon in attack targeting Hezbollah members | CNN
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At least nine people are dead and around 2,800 injured in Lebanon in an attack targeting the pagers of Hezbollah members, the Lebanese health minister said. Follow our live updates.
  • bert@lemmy.monster
    0·
    2 days ago

    Experts have shared two competing theories as to how hundreds of pagers could have exploded simultaneously.

    One theory is that there was a cybersecurity breach, causing the pagers’ lithium batteries to overheat and detonate.

    Another is that this was a “supply chain attack,” where the pagers were tampered with during the manufacturing and shipping process.

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      2 days ago

      It’s got to be the last one.

      Makes you wonder how bulky you can make some electronics before anybody notices it’s filled with C4.

      It doesn’t sound like the death toll is particularly high, but for sure it’s put a lot of people out of action, and they’re going to need a job lot of prosthetic hands.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
        0·
        2 days ago

        I saw unsubstantiated reports claiming there was 10-20 grams of high explosive (eg C4). Which looks pretty “right” based on the footage I looked at before remembering this would be faces of death. An energetic “explosion” coming out the side of the pager that, combined with the metal from the batteries or the interior plates of the pager, would generate a good amount of shrapnel. So high odds of death if you were looking at your pager to read the message and almost guaranteed injury and cuts otherwise. And, if you were gripping your pager on the wrong side, likely loss of fingers (like a fire cracker in the hand).

        Its one reason that a big part of securing your supply chains is to actually inspect what you purchase. (Allegedly) Israel with a few hours in a warehouse overnight could swap out a LOT of pager backplates in ways that are more or less indetectable at a glance or even picking it up (20 grams is nothing). But if you were to weigh those and realize they are 20 grams heavier than all the other pagers you bought (since packaged goods are fairly consistent), that should raise a lot of red flags.

        But I am not aware of even government orgs (let alone terrorist orgs) who are willing to put the effort in to do that.

        • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          2 days ago

          Yeah or even more in-depth than weighing them xraying devices is pretty trivial, specially a small device like a pager that fits on a dental x-ray machine.