This report is part of our ongoing coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas. For more information on this topic, see our dedicated page.
Thousands of pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 2,700.
Reuters reported on Tuesday night that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had placed small amounts of explosives in the pagers, which Hezbollah had bought from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo.
Tensions between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been rising since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the Israel-Hamas war. The two sides have been exchanging gunfire on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the war began.
The Associated Press reported that Hezbollah recently acquired the pagers after its leadership instructed its members to stop using mobile phones due to fears they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
Josep Jornet is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate director of the Wireless Internet of Things Institute at Northeastern University.
Northeastern Global News interviewed him about how such an attack might be carried out. His answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
This situation is still evolving, but what do you think are the key takeaways so far?
Typically this type of hardware has a failsafe, and if something fails, the device will power off. Here the failsafe didn’t work, so it’s been disabled. Who disabled it? Where did they get (these pagers)? Who made them? Who had access to them? It could be the manufacturer that caused the problem. It could be a third party that intercepted the pager and edited the firmware.
It has been reported that explosives were planted inside the pagers. What further insights can be gained about this situation?
So what this means is that someone, somewhere between the manufacturer and the user, got access to these pagers, and they not only modified the software, but they made it react to certain messages, and they also added a little explosive next to the battery, so that the reaction wasn’t just that the battery would explode, but that the pager itself would explode.
Do you know if this has happened before?
No, I can’t think of any right now. This is a new thing.
As the world becomes more connected, do you think we’ll see more of this happening in the future?
This certainly can happen, which is why there’s so much research going on at places like Northeastern University about cybersecurity, and I want to emphasize that cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting your identity and your bank account, it’s also about keeping you safe.
World News
Recent Stories
:where(:not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.alignfull)){max-width:600px;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;}.wp-container -core-group-is-layout-2 > .alignwide{max-width:1280px;}.wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2 .alignfull{max-width:none;}.wp-container- core-group-is-layout-2 > *{margin-block-start:0;margin-block-end:0;}.wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2 > * + *{margin-block-start:var(–wp–preset–spacing–40);margin-block-end:0;}.wp-container-nunews-collateral-is-layout-1 {flex-direction:column;align-items:stretch;}.wp-container-nunews-collateral-is-layout-2{flex-direction:column;align-items:stretch;}.wp-container- core-group-is-layout-4 > :where(:not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.alignfull)){max-width:832px;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right :auto !important;}.wp-container-core-group-is-layout-4 > .alignwide{max-width:832px;}.wp-container-core-group-is-layout-4 .alignfull{max-width:none;}.wp-container-core-post-content-is-layout-1 > :where(:not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.alignfull)){margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;}.wp-container-core-post- content-is-layout-1 .alignfull{max-width:none;} ))>