pagers in lebanon become deadly weapons: do cell phones have the same risks?
2024-09-18
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on the afternoon of september 17, local time, while the lebanese caretaker government was holding a ministerial meeting, pager explosions occurred in beirut, the capital of lebanon, and in many places in southeastern and northeastern lebanon. lebanese minister of public health abyad said that the explosions have killed 9 people and injured about 2,800 people, of which about 200 are in critical condition.
according to cctv news, hezbollah in lebanon issued a statement that israel was "fully responsible" for the pager explosion and vowed to take retaliatory actions. in addition, the lebanese caretaker government also condemned the incident on the same day. so far, israeli officials have not commented on the incident.
it is reported that hezbollah militants in lebanon have recently been using pagers more commonly to avoid israel tracking their locations through this low-tech communication device. according to local lebanese media reports, the batteries of these pagers were remotely detonated.
pager pointed to as cause of explosion
hezbollah in lebanon issued a statement on september 17 local time that pagers carried by several members of the organization exploded that afternoon, killing several hezbollah members and causing a large number of injuries across the country.
the explosions lasted about an hour. according to security sources, some of the explosions occurred after pagers went off, injuring or killing people who put their hands on the pagers or raised them to their faces to check the screens.
lebanese sources say that a small amount of explosives appears to have been placed in 5,000 pagers ordered by hezbollah. the pagers ordered by the group are said to be made by gold apollo, a company in taiwan. multiple sources said the pagers were brought into the country earlier this year. the source confirmed a photo of the pager model number ap924.
experts analyzed images of the destroyed pagers and found that the specifications and stickers on the back were consistent with pagers produced by pager manufacturer king apollo.
in response to the media this morning, golden apollo said that it did not produce the pagers used in the lebanon explosion. they were manufactured by a european company that has the right to use the company's brand. the products are not golden apollo's, but they have the golden apollo brand on them. however, golden apollo did not disclose the name of the company that manufactured the pagers.
the reporter tried to visit the golden apollo website several times today, but failed to open it. according to public information, golden apollo was founded in 1995 and produces pocsag/flex (protocol) pagers. after developing alphanumeric pagers in 1990, it was launched on the global market. the company's markets include india and bangladesh in the asia-pacific region, iran, israel, lebanon in the middle east, and austria and belgium in europe.
it is reported that hezbollah members have been using pagers for a long time because they believe that this can evade israel's tracking of their location. the pager that exploded is the latest model introduced by hezbollah in recent months.
hezbollah is currently conducting a "security and scientific investigation" into the real cause of the pager explosion. diplomatic and security sources speculated that the explosion may have been caused by the device's battery overheating and exploding. there is also speculation that israel may have infiltrated hezbollah's pager supply chain.
an expert in the security field told the reporter of china business network: "there are two possibilities at present. one is that explosives were placed in the pager, and the other is that someone sent malicious signals or instructions to the pager, causing the battery to overheat."
the above expert added that mobile phones are two-way communication devices, so they can be located; while pagers themselves do not transmit signals, but only receive signals, so their location will not be exposed.
zhang lihua, a former technical expert at a major communications company and author of "r&d and innovation," holds the same view. she told the first financial reporter that the video shot in the hospital and shared on social media showed that the injuries of the injured varied, including facial injuries, missing fingers, and huge wounds on the buttocks where pagers might be worn, indicating that a certain amount of highly explosive material petn might have been placed on the batteries of these pagers and detonated by remotely raising the battery temperature.
"from the perspective of the initial functional design, coupled with the limitations of the communication technology at the time, the pager was positioned as a one-way signal receiving device. it could only receive but not send. if you wanted to know specifically why you were contacted, you had to find a phone to call back. so this time perhaps this was taken advantage of, and an error message was sent to the target pager, causing the pager to vibrate, forcing the user to click a button to stop the vibration. this remote operation not only detonates the explosives, but also ensures that the user is present when the explosion occurs." zhang lihua told reporters that with the special pager, the user clicks a button to stop the vibration, causing the battery to overload and heat up, and then explode. the mobile phone will expose the user's location, so for safety reasons, these people dare not use mobile phones.
qatar's al jazeera quoted a source from the lebanese security department as saying that the batch of pagers that exploded had been intercepted by the israeli intelligence and secret service (mossad) before being delivered to hezbollah in lebanon five months ago, and that a trace amount of explosives weighing less than 20 grams was placed inside the pagers.
currently, hospitals in beirut, the capital of lebanon, and other places have received a large number of injured people. the public health emergency operation center of the lebanese ministry of public health issued an emergency statement, requiring all people carrying pagers to throw them away immediately.
why did the pager become a "weapon"?
earlier this year, two sources familiar with hezbollah's operations told the media that hezbollah fighters had recently begun using low-tech communications such as pagers in an attempt to evade israeli location tracking.
in the industry's view, there is a certain possibility of detonating the device through paging vibration.
xiao zaojun, a popular science expert in the communications industry, told reporters that it is possible to use wireless air interfaces to transmit signals and control them through software, which will affect the device's reception of instructions.
another telecommunications operator expert told reporters that other devices exchange more information and it is possible that they are connected and controlled. "it is possible that the pager placed explosives and detonated them through paging. if the paging station in lebanon is fine, there is a possibility that the information was transmitted by a fake paging station, and the fake paging station and the pager were operated together."
in addition, some industry insiders told reporters that when a text message is received, a high level is output, which can then be amplified to ignite the fuse. this can be achieved on a pager from a technical perspective.
israeli intelligence forces have previously placed explosives in personal cell phones to target enemies, according to the 2018 book "rise and kill first." hackers have also demonstrated the ability to inject malicious code into personal devices, causing them to overheat and explode in some cases.
but battery experts doubted that overheating of pager batteries could have caused such a widespread explosion. paul christensen, an expert in lithium-ion battery safety at newcastle university, said the damage did not seem consistent with past failures of such batteries.
several people in the energy industry told the first financial reporter that it is indeed rare or has been verified before that lithium batteries can be controlled to generate heat and cause such a large-scale explosion and casualties.
ofodike ezekoye, a professor of mechanical engineering at the university of texas at austin, said that usually only fully charged batteries will catch fire or explode. it is unlikely that all people whose pagers malfunctioned had fully charged batteries.
the reporter called the securities affairs departments of narada and xinwanda as an investor. narada's business includes solid-state batteries, which are used in smartphones, laptops, wearable devices and other products. the relevant person in charge of the company's securities affairs department said that the safety factor of solid-state batteries is higher than that of liquid and semi-solid batteries. the company's related products have not yet been supplied to the outside world, and no combustion or explosion has occurred in the current experiments. xinwanda's main products include lithium-ion batteries, etc. the relevant person in charge of the securities affairs department said that the company's related products have undergone safety tests and have not exploded under normal use.
are there any security risks in mobile phones?
in the latest news, the official website of golden apollo shows that the battery of the ar924 pager is removable and uses a lithium battery, but the battery capacity is unclear. one of the main speculations at this stage is that israeli agents "hacked" these pagers to interfere with the radio, causing the pager battery to overload and heat up, and then explode.
but this statement has also triggered other concerns in the industry. if pagers can be remotely controlled to explode, can mobile phones also be remotely controlled to explode? who will ensure the safety of communication equipment? in this regard, the reporter of yicai also interviewed many communication professionals to find out.
dai hui, a "tech veteran" who has been engaged in the communications industry for many years, believes that "don't use the traditional one-way paging concept to understand current paging technology. modern technology can easily achieve two-way digital encrypted confidential transmission, as well as complex encryption processing, plus built-in text input processing, display and positioning functions."
"i speculate that after the pager received a certain specific code, it started self-destruction and the lithium battery short-circuited and exploded. our mobile phones have a series of protection logic to avoid accidents as much as possible. the circuit boards are also manufactured through strict automatic visual inspection (aoi) inspection to avoid potential solder joint failures such as cold solder joints (such as avoiding sticking together under high temperatures). fuel vehicles have an automatic oil circuit locking function, and trains are also designed with signal systems to avoid collisions." dai hui told reporters.
another technical director of a leading mobile phone manufacturer told reporters that the same problem is unlikely to occur at the mobile phone level. "4g and 5g mobile phones have a lot of privacy and security policies at the communication level, operating system level, application level, and battery management level. in addition, at the battery management level, if the phone gets too hot, for example, over 80 degrees, it will shut down hard."
the above-mentioned person believes that hardware sensors plus hardware switches can achieve a hard shutdown. this is not software logic and cannot be hacked by hackers.
(this article comes from china business network)
