Beirut [Lebanon], September 18: After a series of pager explosions in Lebanon, many people wonder if pagers and cell phones can be easily detonated.
A series of pager explosions in Lebanon on September 17 killed at least eight people and injured 2,750, leading to questions about what a pager is and why it can explode or be detonated, according to LBCI.
Causes of overheating
According to preliminary information, the incident in Lebanon may have been caused by the device's battery overheating and exploding. There is also speculation about the appearance of a new batch of suspicious pagers.
Initial reports suggested that the messaging system's server had been compromised, leading to the installation of an overload script. This could lead to overheating of the lithium batteries , causing the devices to explode.
Physical damage suffered by the user of the device can range from severe to minor, depending on the area of contact with the device.
Like cell phones and many other consumer electronics, pagers rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to operate. When they catch fire, the flames from the battery can reach up to 590 degrees Celsius, according to the Daily Mail .
Pagers often use unencrypted communication channels and outdated software, making them extremely vulnerable targets.
One-way pagers are passive receivers and cannot be monitored, but when a message is sent, it activates every pager in the area. By hijacking the broadcast signal, an attacker can infect every pager on the network at the same time.
Virus hypothesis
A virus may have been planted on Hezbollah's pager network in Lebanon and hidden on devices until it spread widely. The malware may have been triggered remotely or triggered on a pre-programmed timer.
The footage shows the devices appear to have received a text message shortly before they detonated. This signal could have been the trigger for the explosion, or it could have been used to ensure that the user was holding the device when it exploded.
If these explosions were the product of a cyber attack, it would be an extremely rare case of cyber warfare disrupting physical infrastructure.
Hezbollah issued a statement saying that Israel was behind the incident, took full responsibility and "will certainly receive appropriate punishment for this criminal act", while Israel has not yet commented, according to AFP.
A senior Hezbollah source said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not injured in the series of pager explosions.
A few months ago, Mr Nasrallah himself called on members, especially those on the front lines along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, to stop using smartphones because Israel has the technology to hack into such devices. The use of pagers is said to be an alternative.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
