What caused pagers used by Hezbollah to explode? Wireless security expert explains what might have happened

Thousands of pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah simultaneously exploded in parts of Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 2,700.

Reuters reported Tuesday night that Israel's Mossad spy agency placed small amounts of explosives inside the pagers. Hezbollah purchased the pagers from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese manufacturer.

Tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have escalated since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and sparked the Israel-Hamas war. The two sides have been exchanging fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the war began.

The Associated Press reported that the pagers had recently been acquired by Hezbollah after its leadership told members to stop using cellphones out of concern they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.

Josep Jornet is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the associate director for the Northeastern's Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things.

Northeastern Global News interviewed him about how such an attack might have been carried out. His answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

This situation is still evolving, but what do you believe are some key takeaways so far?

Usually this type of hardware has a failsafe, which means if something fails, the device turns off. Here, the failsafe didn't act, which means that it was disabled. Who disabled it? Where did they get [these pagers] from? Who manufactured them? Who had access to them? It could be the manufacturer that caused the problem. It could have been a third party who intercepted the pagers and did firmware edits.

It's been reported that explosives were placed inside the pagers. What additional insights can we make about this situation?

What it means is that somewhere between the manufacturer and the user someone had access to these pagers. And they did not just modify the software, they would make it react in the presence of a specific message. They also added a tiny explosive next to the battery, so that the reaction would not just be a battery blowing up, it would be the actual pagers exploding.

Do you know of any other situations like this one happening in the past?

No, I cannot think of any right now. This is new.

Do you suspect situations like this happening more in the future as the world gets increasingly more connected?

These things can happen, for sure. That's why in places like Northeastern there is much research going on in cybersecurity. What I want to emphasize is that cybersecurity is needed not just to protect your identity and your bank account. It's needed to protect your physical integrity.

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