Islam Times - Infiltrating Hezbollah Pagers: 3 Scenarios

Islam Times - The complicated terrorist cyber attacks by the Israeli regime that blasted Hezbollah’s pagers raised questions about the way of hacking into these devices and carrying out this operation that killed dozens and wounded thousands, including the Iranian ambassador to Beirut. One question is here: Did Israel hacked them remotely, or they were tampered in origin?

On Thursday evening, the Lebanese health ministry announced that hundreds of Lebanese citizens suffered injuries in the Beirut's south as their pagers went off almost simultaneously.

Security sources told Reuters that these radio communication devices were the latest model the Lebanese resistance movement had recently imported and used.

The most notable reaction and comment of an Israeli official, which indicates the involvement of this regime in this terrorist action, was made by Benjamin Netanyahu's advisor and spokesman Topaz Luk on X. The post was deleted after an order from the PM to the cabinet members to avoid commenting on the operation.

But the question is how this operation was conducted and how did Israel blasted thousands of the pagers simultaneously in various places?

What is a pager?

Pagers are one of the oldest mobile communication devices that are known to provide quick and direct contacts.

Despite the tremendous advancement in mobile phone technology, pagers are still widely used in many critical fields such as healthcare and emergency because of their greater security capabilities, simplicity in message transmission and alerting.

A pager relies on receiving short text messages or notifications sent over radio waves. When someone wants to send a message to a pager user, it is sent encrypted to the nearest transmission tower through the service provider, and when the desired device receives it, it decodes and displays the message.

Each pager has a specific frequency and a unique identification number, called capcode, that allows it to only receive its own messages.

Communication through a pager does not require a SIM card because the devices rely on their identification number and are equipped with radio antennas to receive signals without the need to communicate through cell phone towers.

3 scenarios

Since Thursday, various scenarios were raised as the main reasons behind pager explosions in Lebanon.

Walla news of Israel, citing data provided by Magen Margalit, the VP Digital at Israeli software development company CodeValue, talked about three scenarios.

The first scenario is the occurrence of a sophisticated cyber attack by infiltrating the operating system of the pager devices to reduce or increase the energy stored in the lithium batteries to cause them to overheat and explode.

Hacking into pagers is not an easy job, however, because these devices are simple and not connected to the internet and rely on radio signals, but it is possible to hack the messaging system.

In older pagers, damaging the battery requires accessing the device's internal electrical system, and this is not possible through the radio communication technology used in the pager. Even more modern pagers are equipped with protection systems that prevent damage from overcharging or overheating the battery.

Still, Margalit believes that the older generation use an analog system of transmission and they were hard to hack. But the modern and digital versions are penetrable and remotely controlable.

According to the Israeli expert, after hacking and controlling wireless communication devices, frequencies can be controlled, false messages can be sent, and physical weaknesses in electronic components can be used to damage the device and even explode it, by executing a code that causes the device to work at a high speed until the limit of battery explosion.

In a news report consistent with this scenario, AFP, citing a source close to Hezbollah, said that the pagers that exploded came in a recent shipment containing a thousand devices and appear to have been “hacked from the origin."

It is noteworthy that in 2021, Israeli company NSO made splash worldwide for producing Pegasus spyware that hacks into smartphones running on both Android and IOS operating systems.

The second scenario is the possibility of exploiting a security loophole in the operating system of these devices, which has allowed the Israelis to remotely control and detonate them

There is a more likely scenario as a third one. It is likely that these devices were tampered and an explosive part was planted into them in the manufacturing process and prepared for the terrorist operation before their shipment to the Lebanese side, especially that Reuters confirmed the Lebanese side had imported them several months ago.

In other words, these devices may packed parts that were designed to be detonated remotely.

Brussels-based military expert Elijah Magnier told Associated Press that "undoubtedly, they [Israelis] infiltrated the production process and planted an explosive element and a remote detonation piece to it."