The Iran-backed militant group said handheld communication devices belonging to its members had blown up across the country.
The militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday that pagers belonging to its members had blown up across Lebanon, killing at least eight and injuring more than 2,700, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Iran-backed Hezbollah pinned the blame for the widespread and seemingly simultaneous blasts on Israel, without providing evidence for its claim. Israel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the accusations and the pager explosions.
More than 200 people were in critical condition after the blasts, Public Health Minister Dr. Firas Abiad told reporters.
Amid what was developing into a nationwide health emergency, Lebanese officials ordered the public to avoid using handheld communication devices.
Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was among those injured, according to the country’s embassy. In an post on X, it described his injuries as “superficial,” and added that Amani was in a good condition.
Oh wow if this was a remote hardware hack that would be pretty unique. How many other hardware hacks have injured or killed people?
Unlikely, it would be a factory-level thing I imagine, trying to make explosions that big from just hacking hardware (specifically small pagers) would be nigh-on impossible (if not impossible).
This was a clever supply chain attack. I say clever because I don’t think anything like this and at this scale has happened before, but due to it being lethal it’s crazy scary. I’m not condoning it or praising it. As a cybersecurity professional we usually see people infiltrate the supply chain of code to inject their own, not actually putting explosives into communication devices and then using the network to remotely detonate.
If there is a technique for doing that with a standard lithium-ion battery, we can say goodbye to bringing personal electronic devices on flights from now on. Though given that it’d be only a matter of time until ransomware gangs and online swatters get this, would we want to have anything with a battery in a pocket?
As an infosec/cybersecurity professional, I am fascinated by this. As a human being living in this cyberpunk dystopia, I am disgusted.
NPR was saying these devices are used by people in government too and that government vehicles were seen arriving at the hospital, and that children had been killed. They didn’t just target Hezbollah.
pagers
Exploding
Kill 8 and injure more than 2,700
Damn, I’ve seen vape batteries going up, but i never thought of a (most likely) smaller pager battery doing that much damage. Wonder what the chemistry of those batteries was…
Wonder what the chemistry of those batteries was…
(CH2N2O2)3 would be my guess…
This is some Watch_Dogs shit
Holy shit the 90s actually called
