• Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Damn. This must be one of the most terrifying cyber attacks of all time. Like, Mr. Robot level of breach and execution.

    In that show they rig the UPS batteries of server buildings to blow up, this is basically the same idea on a smaller scale.

    Either that, or they compromised the manufacturer of the pagers and put small explosive devices in there. Truly legendary and insane.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Probably not. It was almost certainly the case that these pagers were already connected to explosives, probably to be IEDs. All Israel would have had to do is page the pagers to detonate them. I can’t think of any other logical explanation.

    • Badabinski@kbin.earth
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, I’ve been wondering how the fuck they pulled this off. If it turns out that the only pagers that exploded belonged to Hezbollah members, then that would signal to me that this was done entirely digitally.

      I’ve heard that batteries (can’t remember if it was laptop or phone batteries) contain the energy of a small grenade, but getting it to release that energy all at once without physical access is absolutely fucking wild and has serious fucking implications for device security.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        2 months ago

        Getting batteries to release energy isn’t very difficult, even getting them to release it quickly isn’t very difficult. What’s difficult is getting them to release it over the course of a few milliseconds. Which is what you would need for an explosion.

        If the battery simply dumped all its power over the course of 30 seconds that’s basically just a fire that you can run away from.

        Also I wouldn’t have thought a pager had that much charge, I wouldn’t have thought this sort of thing would be possible as they would tend to just go off with a loud bang, assuming you could even get them to release all the energy at once l, which again I wouldn’t have thought was possible.

        For fairly obvious reasons I don’t think we’re ever going to find out how this was done.

        • umami_wasabi@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Maybe there will be a faulty one laying somwhere now thrown away by the owner? That will be nice for analysis.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I’ll save you time. Compromised licensed factory in Europe, making Chinese beepers, was compromised or owned by Israel. They then put explosives in the pagers and set them to explode when paged a certain code.

        They knew hezbollah was the purchaser, and would disperse them amongst its members.

        I think its stupid unless it stopped some imminent horrible attack. Otherwise, Israel has given themselves away, and only killed 8 people for it. Maybe they had trouble rigging them to steal their communications.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Specifically in Hungary, same country that has been voting with Israel in the UN and also has a Fascist government.

          It sure makes manufacturing involving explosives much more easily to go ahead if the local government has approved of it.

          I’m curious what this will do to the “Made In EU” brand in the rest of the World.

          • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            There was already an article I saw saying it will have a chilling affect on western electronics to at least some degree.

    • naturlychee@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      no way it was just the batteries.

      batteries burn but don’t detonate with shrapnel

      it was altered devices with explosives added.

      • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They’ve done a similar thing at a smaller scale with individual phones in the past. What is different is this time it’s not targeted at a specific person and instead involves thousands of devices going off simultaneously. It’s not a big risk unless you have nation state level threats up against you because it’s hard to pull off, they have to get a functioning device with explosives in it into the hands of the target and the effort involved in doing that is significant.

    • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I am surprised the name of the manufacture is not out. This basically raise privacy concern.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They were on TV over here (Portugal) doing a press conference were they explained the devices were made in Hungary by a company which licensed the brand name from them (a Taiwanese company) so the manufacturer’s name (which I totally forgot) is definitely out.