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Lebanon’s health minister says 8 killed, 2,750 wounded by exploding pagers (www.aljazeera.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don't think the thousands of pagers built this way really count as "improvised."

    That being said, it makes me wonder if this went in any way according to plan - 8 deaths and 2750 injuries is a large scale attack, don't get me wrong. But they've now announced Mossad has compromised the supplier of the pager, which they will undoubtedly audit, and instill new policies on device security. I wouldn't be surprised if that means they discover a lot more compromised electronics, allowing Hezbollah to pinpoint the compromise. Because 2750 survived, you now have 2750 people very interested in finding it.

    In all, for 8 deaths, they've made their own work harder.

    That being said 2750 injuries could be a large enough number to scare members out of the org.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I heard they recently switched to pagers because cell phones where deemed to be compromised. So I think besides the direct deaths and injuries, this attack also targeted lines of communication and trust in technology as a whole (or anything supplied by your superior even).

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, that's what I read too. It's a smart way to force the weaponized pagers into the hands of your enemies.

    Also sort of shows the attack wasn't too sophisticated. Mossad might not even have compromised the cell phones, they just fed bad intelligence to whoever and they had a likely supplier already compromised.

    In all - it doesn't look too good for any intelligence personnel in Hezbollah.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    besides the direct deaths and injuries, this attack also targeted lines of communication and trust

    Exactly. The psychological impact of this attack should not be underestimated.

    It will have Hamas' leadership and operatives second guessing so many of the mundane things that they interact with on a daily basis.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Im more surprised that Hezbollah issues them. I'd thought pagers were cheap enough as consumer items that they'd just give their guy a wad of cash and say go pick up such and such pager for me.

    Would have at least severely hampered any precision from man-in-the-middle attacks on supply lines such as these. Especially when being embedded within a civilian city.

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  • [+] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Perhaps the latter? My first thought is still that the pagers intended use was for triggering explosives, and they were simply triggered early by the other side.

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