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Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

reuters.com

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Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#371

Post by moduspol »

harimau777 wrote: post #167

This seems like it would have the potential for a lot of collateral damage due to the possibility that modified pagers might enter general distribution. That is to say, how do they insure that a given shipment of pagers are only going to Hezbollah as opposed to some of them going to people like aid workers?

I'm not sure why it's being assumed that they detonated all of the pagers. They presumably have unique device IDs / phone numbers that can be tied to individual people. For all we know, they may have just detonated the ones known to be in use by Hezbollah operatives.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#372

Post by robertoandred »

apienx wrote: post #260

"These devices don't appear to be designed to be lethal.[..] They are, for the most part, low charge so not packing enough to actually kill somebody.[..] Let's not forget that this comes on the same day that Israel has extended its war aims to including expelling Hezbollah basically from the border." -- BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNEb-dY3tRY

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#373

Post by whimsicalism »

0x_rs wrote: post #324

Seems old pagers were replaced last month at the American University of Beirut. It may or may not have to do with this operation, but the timing seems very suspect. Those devices may have been tampered with explosives at some point before being distributed to the victims. https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1836082218805891360

probably unrelated, lebanon is a big place

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#374

Post by rdtsc »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #355
sbeam wrote: post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

I wonder what Israel did to ensure that only legitimate targets were harmed by the sabotaged pagers.

Would we be surprised if the answer is “nothing”.

Of course we can read anything we want from the silence, as it’s unlike we’re getting any details about it. Anything in the range of “of course they did, we’re talking about a civilized country” to “of course they didn’t, how could they”.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#376

Post by mynameishere »

einszwei wrote: post #196

From Israel's perspective, this supply chain attack was undoubtedly a clever move, but I can't help but wonder about its long-term consequences. Although it was aimed at harming Israel's adversaries, third-party countries may now hesitate to involve Israel in their supply chains. There's also the risk that other major producers could replicate this tactic, potentially leading to further escalation in the region or be…

Israel used letter bombs for a long time to assassinate and terrorize. People didn't stop using the mail because of that, but upgraded their opsec.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#377

Post by ars »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #355
sbeam wrote: post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

I wonder what Israel did to ensure that only legitimate targets were harmed by the sabotaged pagers.

These pagers were distributed only to Hezbollah members, these were not just standard pagers anyone could buy.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#378

Post by carstenhag »

zelias wrote: post #248

I am for some reason reminded of this classic scene from The Wire [1] where a detective sells a trove of preemptively wiretapped burner cell phones to a drug organization [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDalKxcLQC8

Also related, but rather a malware attack: Europol/French Police compromising all Encrochat phones in 2020.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#379

Post by janmo »

fwip wrote: post #343
janmo wrote: post #302

Intelligence agencies put their bugs within the hardware of electronic devices you order online. If you believe being the target of an intelligence agency never order anything online. They will put the bug inside, especially if it is an electronic device such as a phone/laptop/TV/coffee machine. Best solution is to go buy it from a random store and have a good home security system. Also weigh your electronic devices…

Where do they do this? Do they pick up the package at the post office distribution center?

In my case they did it at the store where I came to pick it up. That's how I got aware of it.

The espionage agency in question was the french DGSI.

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