So far, attacks on Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah members via their pagers have had devastating consequences. At least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, have been killed and some 2,800 wounded. More than 150 of the wounded are in critical condition, Lebanon’s health minister said.
It’s important to note that the exact cause of the explosions has not yet been confirmed, and the news is developing by the minute. So far, experts who spoke to CNN said the explosions were most likely caused by hardware tampering rather than another theory about a cybersecurity breach that caused lithium batteries to heat up and explode — but neither has been confirmed by authorities.
In short, your communications device is not at risk of explosion unless it is severely tampered with and contaminated with explosives, according to experts who spoke to CNN.
The explosions came as Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in months of tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the war between Israel and Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces had no comment Tuesday, although Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel.
Pagers are wireless devices that can send messages without an internet connection. Although they are less popular than mobile phones, some industries, such as healthcare, still depend on them.
Justin Cappos, a professor of cybersecurity at NYU, said it is possible to cause damage to various types of batteries — most commonly lithium batteries, which have caused dangerous fires. But he said it appears the “devices are intentionally designed to explode when activated, not a pager that everyone in the world uses.”
“If you’re a normal person with a lithium-ion battery, I wouldn’t worry too much about this,” Cappos said.
According to Baptiste Robert, a cybersecurity researcher and CEO of Predicta Lab, the pagers were likely not hacked, but rather modified before being sent.
According to him, the size of the explosion indicates that it was a coordinated and sophisticated attack.
Michael Horowitz, chief intelligence officer at security and risk management consultancy Le Beck International, also said the explosion was likely caused by a modification to the equipment and not a cyberattack.
“We have never seen this tactic used on this scale, but it does mean that this is not an attack that can affect all pagers. If true, it would indicate very high penetration of Hezbollah’s supply chain for these devices,” Horowitz said via email.
When it comes to battery safety, the National Fire Protection Association has a set of safety guidelines for lithium batteries, including proper disposal. The association also said that people should stop using devices with lithium-ion batteries if the battery shows signs of damage due to the risk of fire or explosion.
In 2016, Samsung recalled the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide, citing “battery cell issues” that caused the device to catch fire and sometimes explode. Even then, reports were in the dozens, not the thousands, and not a single simultaneous event.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, approximately 500,000 hoverboards were recalled in 2016 due to the risk of “fire and/or explosion.”
It is unclear what kind of battery the pagers in question had. A Lebanese security source told CNN that Hezbollah had recently purchased the devices.
Christian Edwards, Adrienne Vogt and CNN Aditi Sangal contributed to this report.
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