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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

#981

Post by Havoc »

trallnag wrote: post #967
Havoc wrote: post #949

That’s a lot of injured and very angry very freshly motivated terrorists…and not a lot of dead ones. Not convinced this is a net win for Israel

Israel loses if it kills it's enemies. That's your logic? Reminds me of Trudeau "if you kill your enemies, they win".

>Israel loses if it kills it's enemies. That's your logic?

huh? No not at all

Saying that those 2k+ injured Hammas are going to spend time recovering and when they're back they're going to be even more motivated to harm Israel.

Would have been better to do nothing. Or to kill them. But nothing in between.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#983

Post by nebula8804 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #778
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…

it makes me think the Israeli decision-makers are trying to leave Hezbollah no choice but to escalate into a larger war. I think Hezbollah has been trying to avoid escalation into all out war, responding in limited proportionate ways despite Israel continuing to escalate. (Can you imagine if Hezbollah had detonated thousands of such devices in Israel? I'd be scared of a nuclear response). But Israeli leaders maybe de…

Israel leadership is probably prepping for some big October surprise timed perfectly just before the US election. Everyone is predicting it so much these days that its not really a surprise but a eventuality at this point.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#984

Post by ttyprintk »

hajile wrote: post #957
kombine wrote: post #860

If it was not a terrorist attack and a war crime but a targeted operation against the militants, why wouldn't Israel claim responsibility for the successful operation?

If a car bomb went off next to an IDF post killing a bunch of IDF soldiers and one 10-year-old kid, it would be declared a terrorist attack immediately. If this involved China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, or Russia planting bombs on Ukrainian soldiers, nobody would be debating whether it was a terrorist attack.

It’s certainly a relief when polite society can recognize it that way. So, that ends one discussion but starts another. When foreign intelligence is tasked with, say, breaking laws and moral codes in Lebanon; it lives in the shade because we cannot distinguish it from terrorism or organized crime or a financial scam. It’s been this way for a long time and the debate nowadays is whether or not, on balance, we’re prevailing over evil.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#985

Post by treebeard901 »

It is reasonable to assume a Mossad agent would have pagers as potential way to communicate. Pagers work on separate networks from cell phones and usually do not have the same location tracking.

It is also fair to assume that Mossad would want the ability to remotely destroy an agents pager. If it was captured, etc. So very likely these were already a standard part of their equipment and then distributed to Lebanon.

It is also interesting how fear of cell phone tracking drove them to pagers, which was then exploited in response.

It is different from Stuxnet and a form of terrorism. Same as all the assassinations. They are crossing all of these lines that can be a double edged sword in the long run.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#986

Post by talldayo »

hettygreen wrote: post #741

Imagine what they could do with the battery in an electric car.. thankfully the security on vehicles is so good that a hack like this would be impossible eh?

It's very easy to imagine what they'd do with the battery in an electric car. They would do the same thing they did to the pager: put a bomb in it. You cannot "detonate" a lithium ion battery with remote code execution unless you have tampered with the components surrounding it.

It's not so much about the security on vehicles and more about the practical limits. Thermal runaway is only going to happen if you manage to disable the battery's shutoff safeguard (which is usually replicated in hardware and firmware). Unlike phones, you can't really heat up the CPU and force the battery to take the heat. You would have to manipulate the drivetrain in a way that unnaturally damaged the hardware, something a driver would notice almost immediately.

Getting the conditions right for a software-based exploit is a circus act compared to installing a plastic explosive and remote detonator outside the battery stowage.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#987

Post by iszomer »

deeth_starr_v wrote: post #805
mcoliver wrote: post #730

"The New York Times reported that Israel hid explosive material in the Taiwan-made Gold Apollo pagers before they were imported to Lebanon, citing American and other officials briefed on the operation. The material was implanted next to the battery with a switch that could be triggered remotely to detonate." Wild

“Gold Apollo said on Wednesday the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday were not made by it but by a company called BAC which has a licence to use its brand.” They spun up a whole company

Not surprising. Recall how two Taiwanese companies were implicated when they reportedly had their device driver signing key "stolen", in the creation of Stuxnet.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#Windows_infection [2] https://youtu.be/Fqk_VUMzY_M?si=H64JCMMCzY-k7Y1K&t=823

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#989

Post by hollerith »

kart23 wrote: post #320

someone in the US government is probably freaking out about all these iphones and macbooks made in china right now.

Actually, I trust Apple's hardware security enough that I think it is probably impossible for anyone in China (even though they have physical access to the devices) to alter an iPhone or Macbook so that its own electronics can be used to trigger any explosive the attacker might install in the device, so in addition to an explosive, the attacker would need to install his own radio receiver. And the attacker probably won't be able to use the device's electronics to eavesdrop on the device's user, so no ability to tell whether the user is in the group the attacker wants to target unless again the attacker installs his own electronics (including radio transmitter) to do the eavesdropping.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#990

Post by 71bw »

limit499karma wrote: post #961
achow wrote: post #835

Israel's Mossad spy agency planted a small amount (3 gm) of explosives inside 5,000 pagers made by Gold Apollo (a Taiwanese company). "The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code." 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them. Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that had t…

> Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the Taipei-based firm's brand, "The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it" He also said it was strange he got paid from "Middle East". That statement of his also indicates this was not a long standing "licensing" agreement. Someone likely called up from "Europe…

Why are you referring to Israel with its name in quotation marks?
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