A chilling incident unfolded in Lebanon on September 17, 2024, when hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously, resulting in nine deaths and leaving nearly 3,000 injured (at the time of publishing this report).
Hezbollah’s pager explosions episode not only highlights the vulnerability of old-school technology to cyber-physical attacks but also raises concerns about the potential risks posed to more modern devices like smartphones. While the attack on pagers shocked many, it raises the question of smartphones being vulnerable to similar attacks.
Why Hezbollah Still Uses Pagers?
While pagers might seem like a gadget from the past, they are still in use today in sectors that require secure, simple communication. Hezbollah has relied on these devices instead of smartphones because pagers don’t connect to the internet or cellular networks, making them harder to hack, track, or surveil.
Pagers typically function by receiving short messages through radio frequencies, which many believe provide an extra layer of security. However, the devastating explosions demonstrated that even this older technology is not immune to sophisticated cyber-physical attacks.
The exact method of how these pager explosions were orchestrated remains unclear, but several theories have emerged. One likely explanation is a deliberate tampering with the pagers’ lithium-ion batteries, a common power source for these devices. If manipulated to overheat, these batteries can experience what’s known as thermal runaway, a process that leads to rapid heat buildup and, eventually, an explosion.
Supply Chain Infiltration Behind Hezbollah’s Pager Explosions?
The other theory that Lebanon has been claiming is that Israeli intelligence was behind the explosive sabotage of Hezbollah’s pagers. According to reports, Israel’s Mossad spy agency embedded an explosive board into the pagers during the manufacturing process. These pagers were ordered a few months ago from Taiwan-based companies but were reportedly tampered with before reaching Hezbollah operatives.
News agencies reported that around 3,000 of these pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives. This tactic would align with previous operations attributed to Israeli intelligence, which has a history of covert actions aimed at disrupting Hezbollah’s activities.
This incident highlights how this type of supply chain infiltration emphasizes the growing risks of technological sabotage, even with devices that lack internet connectivity.
Could Your Smartphone Be at Risk?
If the Hezbollah pager incident was indeed a supply chain attack, it highlights the risks of vulnerabilities being embedded in technology at the manufacturing stage—a tactic that could e applied to other types of devices as well, including smartphones.
While there are no confirmed instances of smartphones being hacked to intentionally explode, smartphones have been known to catch fire or explode due to battery defects. However, such incidents have been purely accidental, not caused by intentional cyberattacks.
In theory, though, hackers could exploit a phone’s hardware vulnerabilities or manipulate its software to cause it to overheat, leading to a fire or explosion. Smartphones run on complex operating systems that can be infiltrated by malware. Although these attacks are typically aimed at stealing data, the same principle could, in theory, be applied to cause damage to the device itself.
The Future of Cyber-Physical Attacks
As the pager-explosion event demonstrates, the growing integration of technology into daily life opens new doors for cyber-physical attacks. While smartphones have yet to be targeted in this way, the potential for attacks using similar methods is concerning. The challenge lies in securing supply chains, monitoring hardware integrity, and ensuring that increasingly connected devices cannot be used as tools for harm.