Following the explosion of thousands of pagers in Lebanon perpetrated by Israeli secret services to the detriment of the militiamen of Hezbollah provoking 18 dead and about 4000 injuredone of the first hypotheses put forward by some media claimed that the cause of everything could have been a Trojan horseresponsible for the overheating of the batteries and their consequent explosion. This is, however, a rather unlikely theory. According to the investigators, in fact, the attack could have been perpetrated with somePETN explosive installed inside the pagers and detonated by means of a remote-activated trigger. The pagers – devices for transmitting and receiving short messages that were especially widespread in the 1980s and 1990s before cell phones, which Hezbollah considered more secure and less traceable – would therefore have been sabotaged during their production or during transport.
If you’re worried that malware could infect your smartphone and cause explosions like those that affected pagers in Lebanon, then you can sleep reasonably well: Lithium batteries in smartphones usually explode only if there are serious manufacturing defects or if, quite unlikely, there is explosives inside your device.
Pagers Exploded in Lebanon: The Most Credited Hypothesis
Regarding theThousands of Pagers Exploded in Lebanon disinformation risks obscuring the reality of things. This is why referring to themost accredited hypothesisput forward by several Lebanese officials and independent IT experts, is essential to clarify what happened.
Two Lebanese officials, according to what was reported by the The New York Timesthey argue that the explosive material Of Approximately 30-60 gramsit was implanted next to the battery in every pager. According to three other officials, the devices were «programmed to emit an acoustic signal for several seconds before exploding“. Speaking to the BBCa former British Army munitions expert (who preferred to remain anonymous) speculated that the devices could have been activated by a remote signal.
Some cyber security expertsanalyzing the videos of the attacks available online, they said that the force and speed of explosions it was compatible with the hypothesis of the presence of explosives in the pagers. Mikko Hypponenresearcher at the software company WithSecure and cybercrime consultant atEuropolfor example, he stated:
It is likely that these pagers were modified in some way to cause these types of explosions: the size and force of the explosion indicate that it was not just the battery.
But how is it possible that explosives were present in the pagers in possession of Hezbollah militants? Some Analysts speculate that the pagers may have been tampered with during production or transportation. In this regard Orna Mizrachisenior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said:
I believe it was a long-planned and organized action, somewhere in the supply chain of these devices, which came from Taiwan, they intervened to insert an explosive inside. Sending a message on all pagers indicated the charge.
Why were the pagers hit?
At this point someone might ask because the attack was perpetrated by tampering with pagers and not smartphones. In essence, the reason is to be found in the fact that, earlier this year, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahhas severely limited use of cell phonesconsidered more vulnerable to remote surveillance by Israeli intelligence services. Commenting on this strategy, Keren Elazarian Israeli cybersecurity analyst and researcher at Tel Aviv University, reported that «This attack has hit (Hezbollah militants, Ed.) in their Achilles heel, because it eliminated a central means of communication».
The main model of sabotaged pager is theAR-924 of Taiwanese Gold Apollo; in the last few hours it has been said that the batch of thousands of pagers purchased by Hezbollah had been produced in Hungary by Bac Consultingbut the company denied this, saying they only acted as mediators. The AR-924 model is intended for military use, with a high degree of resistance and the ability to receive and send signals even over long distances.
Could smartphones also be at risk?
We have now come to the question of questions: What happened with the pagers that exploded in Lebanon could also happen with our smartphones? Probably not. While overheating batteries in our phones can be a symptom of malware, it is highly unlikely that this will cause the battery to explode. In this regard Stephen Zanerofull professor of “Computer Security” and “Digital Forensics and Cybercrime” at the Polytechnic University of Milan, stated:
The hypothesis of a hack of the server that then sends a command to the individual pagers (pagers, Ed.) to make them overheat and explode their batteries, as well as the hypothesis of a tampering of the pager to insert malware, do not convince me at all. A battery can overheat, smoke, catch fire, in some cases it can even explode. But not explode in that way, with these effects. It is very unlikely. I do not believe it.
To sum up, then, In theory, it is possible for a smartphone’s lithium battery to explode due to overheating (as demonstrated by the emblematic case of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, recalled from the market in 2016 due to a manufacturing defect that caused problems of this type), but not to the point of causing violent explosions like those that occurred to the pagers of Hezbollah militants. An attack was perpetrated thanks to the use of explosives possible only following a complex and risky interception of the distribution chain of the devices.
