by Thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members simultaneously exploded in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, resulting in at least nine fatalities and over 2,700 injuries. Reuters reported that the Israeli Mossad spy agency may have been responsible for placing explosives inside these pagers. Hezbollah had purchased these devices from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese manufacturer.
Tensions between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have escalated since Hamas initiated attacks on Israel on October 7, leading to the Israel-Hamas war. The two sides have been exchanging fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the war commenced.
The Associated Press reported that Hezbollah had recently acquired these pagers due to concerns that their cellphones could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
Josep Jornet, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the associate director for Northeastern’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, shared his insights with Northeastern Global News regarding the possible execution of such an attack. His responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Professor Jornet explained, “Typically, this type of hardware comes with a failsafe mechanism. If something fails, the device shuts off. In this case, the failsafe did not activate. This indicates that it was disabled. The question is, who disabled it? Where did they get these pagers from? Who manufactured them? Who had access to them? It could have been the manufacturer that caused the problem. It could have been a third party who intercepted the pagers and made firmware edits. The crucial point is that somewhere between the manufacturer and the user, someone had access to these pagers. They didn’t just modify the software; they made it react in response to a specific message. Additionally, they added a small explosive next to the battery, so it wasn’t just the battery that blew up, but the actual pagers exploded.”
Jornet emphasized, “These incidents demonstrate that cybersecurity is essential not only to protect your identity and bank account but also to safeguard your physical integrity. Extensive research in cybersecurity is ongoing at places like Northeastern.”
