in-depth | how did pagers become a "weapon"? are mobile phones still safe?
2024-09-19
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on the afternoon of september 17th, local time,pager explosions occurred in beirut, the capital of lebanon, as well as in many places in southeastern and northeastern lebanon.lebanese minister of public health firas abyad said in a live broadcast on lebanon's "new tv" later on the 17th that the number of people injured in the pager explosion has exceeded4,000 people, 400 of whom were seriously injured; the death toll rose to 11.
it is reported that on september 18, local time, many places in lebanonanother explosion of communications equipment occurred.so far, at least three people have died in the explosion.
it is known that multiple explosions have occurred in beirut, the capital of lebanon, marjayoun in the southeast, and the bekaa valley in the east. the equipment includes pagers, walkie-talkies, and wireless communication equipment. houses in some areas have caught fire or exploded as a result. the explosion of wireless communication equipment in sohmor, a town in the bekaa valley in eastern lebanon, has killed three people. in addition, power systems in many places in southern lebanon exploded, and a girl in the southern town of marwasin was injured by an explosion in her home's solar power generation system.
most people did not expect that wireless communication devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies, which are often ignored or even obsolete in life, have become the source of the explosion.
previous events
pager pointed to as cause of explosion
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.
according to reuters, this may be a conspiracy that has been planned for months.
a senior lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said hezbollah ordered 5,000 pagers from a taiwanese company called gold apollo and that the pagers were reportedly delivered earlier this year.
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.
experts say that specially made pagers, when the user clicks a button to stop the vibration, can cause the battery to overload, heat up, and explode, while the mobile phone can expose the user's location, so for safety reasons, these people dare not use mobile phones.
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.
how pagers became a weapon
lithium batteries become the focus?
in the industry's view, there is a certain possibility of detonating the device through paging vibration.
experts from telecommunications operators said that other devices exchange more information and it is possible that they can be connected and controlled. in addition, some industry insiders said that when receiving text messages, a high level is output, which can then be amplified to ignite the fuse, which can be achieved on a pager from a technical perspective.
but battery experts doubted that overheating of the 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.
many energy industry insiders said: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.
a professor of mechanical engineering at the university of texas at austin analyzed that usually only fully charged batteries will catch fire or explode. it is unlikely that all people whose pagers malfunctioned had fully charged batteries.
but in any case, the explosion dealt a severe blow to local residents. according to lebanese media reports, most of the injured were injured in their hands, arms, legs, faces, including eyes. some people face amputation. the dead include an 8-year-old girl.
a new form of war has begun?
are mobile devices safe?
wang jin, an expert on middle east issues and associate professor at the middle east institute of northwest university, said that it can be preliminarily confirmed that this was an organized and planned explosion. if it is finally found out that it was israel's doing, it may mean that israel hopes to gain greater deterrence through this explosion.
wang jin pointed out that this explosion actually shows a possible new form of war. if it is indeed done by israel, it may mean that everyone, including hezbollah in lebanon and other countries, may face a new form of war.
after all, mobile phones and other communication tools are tools that people use frequently in their daily lives. it is worth paying attention to whether tablet computers and laptops will be subject to similar attacks in the future.
are there any security risks in mobile phones?
the incident sparked heated discussions among netizens. after all, in modern society, who doesn’t have an “internet addiction”? some netizens looked at the miniature “bricks” in their hands and broke out in cold sweats:obviously, we are the most "intimate" "strangers" in our daily lives. will this small electronic device "stab me in the back" one day?
if pagers can be remotely controlled to explode, are mobile phones still safe? are communications still safe? this is the focus of netizens' current concerns.
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."
dai hui said that our mobile phones will have a series of protection logic to avoid accidents as much as possible. the circuit boards will also undergo strict automatic visual inspection (aoi) inspections during manufacturing to avoid potential solder joint failures such as cold solder joints (such as avoiding sticking together under high temperatures).
another technical director of a leading mobile phone manufacturer told reporters,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 be shut down."
in the final analysis, the remote control methods that can be realized on pagers require higher-level technical support on mobile phones. as ordinary people, we don’t have to worry too much about our electronic devices being remotely controlled and exploded. after all, that is not something that anyone can do, and our devices are safe!
