The recent cyber-physical attacks in Lebanon, involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, heralds a new age of remote assassinations.
Israel just conducted the most spectacular cyber-physical twin sabotage in history.
In the first such attack, at 3:30 pm on Wednesday Sept 17, thousands of encrypted pagers carried by Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, Syria and Iraq exploded simultaneously, killing at least a dozen individuals, including two children at the time of writing. A day later, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by the militia exploded at the same time, and they were apparently potent enough to set fire to an apartment and a car. More than a dozen individuals were reportedly killed in the second incident.
More than 3,000 individuals were reportedly wounded by both attacks. This figure probably includes those injured in Syria and Iraq.
Just how were these audacious attacks executed? According to preliminary reports, the Mossad had intercepted a new shipment of Hezbollah-bound pagers about five months ago, and duly planted nearly 20 gm of PETN, a highly explosive material, on its lithium ion batteries along with malware that would cause heat surges upon activation. The pagers and walkie-talkies were activated simultaneously — on consecutive days — to ensure that it would be the owners, i.e., Hezbollah operatives who would be the ones picking them up. This would ensure maximum casualties. Some of them however threw away their devices upon sensing an unusual heat surge.
Many mainstream news outlets erroneously termed these events as “cyberattacks”. Technically, this is incorrect as pagers and walkie-talkies, unlike smartphones, do not rely on internet-based networks or cellular transmissions. Pagers use radio-based broadcasting systems and relay systems while walkie-talkies rely on direct radio communications. These are less sophisticated devices which do not involve the complex network infrastructure associated with cellular devices. Since the affected pagers had some level of encryption, they would have had a software component, unlike the walkie-talkies. Rigging the pagers would involve software and hardware manipulation or substitution while only the hardware needs to be tampered with in the case of walkie-talkies. A preprogrammed message or signal would turn these devices into mobile bombs.
Therefore, the correct terminology for these attacks would be cyber-physical attacks. These merge the digital and physical worlds, using cyber means to cause tangible harm.
Shocking Security Lapses
Most pagers today are Made in China but apparently the AR-924 model ordered by Hezbollah came from the Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT, which has a licence from Taiwan’s Apollo Gold to manufacture and market them under the latter’s brand name. According to the Guardian, BAC Consulting is helmed by Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono who was known for her pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian posts on LinkedIn. That would have been the perfect hook for an organisation like Hezbollah.
Some experts claim that these devices were tampered with at source, i.e., the assembly plants. This would suggest official collusion with the host country where the plant is located i.e. Hungary. The more likely scenario is that shipments of these devices may have been intercepted and substituted with rigged facsimiles during transit or in a warehouse.
It could have been pulled off by Mista‘arvim operatives, guised as mercantile Hezbollah die-hards who acted as intermediaries. Massive discounts and kickbacks, interspersed with de rigueur appeals to jihad, would have sweetened the deal. There are many possibilities here. Never trust die-hard fanatics, particularly the jihadi types, as they almost always end up working for the other side, sometimes unknowingly.
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Dr Mathew Maavak’s research interests include systems science, global risks, geopolitics, foresight and governance. Follow him on Twitter @MathewMaavak or read his latest articles at https://drmathewmaavak./substack.com
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