Lebanon | How did at least hundreds of pagers explode at almost the same moment? HS asked an expert

in Lebanon in what happened on Tuesday in pager explosions several people died and thousands were wounded. The Hezbollah extremist organization operating in Lebanon has blamed Israel, which is in an active conflict with the organization, for the explosions.

Late on Tuesday evening Finnish time, it was not clear how even at least hundreds of paging devices exploded at 15:30 local time almost exactly at the same time. Among other things, the reason has been suspected to be the intentional detonation of the pager batteries and explosives hidden in them.

Professor of cyber security at the University of Oulu and National Defense University Kimmo Halunen can’t remember seeing such a series of explosions before. Individual cases where, for example, a phone would have been successfully detonated from a long distance away are also very rare.

At the same time, the element of surprise of the explosion operation planner has been used.

“This target group is probably quite critical of all kinds of technical devices [jatkossa] and disposes of the equipment in his possession or at least examines whether there are any surprises in them,” says Halunen.

HS compiled the most important arguments related to the causes of the explosions and asked Halus for comments on them.

Allegation: The pager’s lithium-ion batteries were blown up

According to the information Halus has seen so far, it is not likely that the explosions were caused by exploding batteries.

“My own experience with batteries is that they overheat and bulge, and it’s a reasonably long way to explosion. How could this be made so operationally reliable that it would happen at a certain moment and so quickly that the person does not have time to notice it before the battery explodes?” I want to think.

Several videos, including security camera recordings, of the explosions have spread on social media. In at least one video, the pager user apparently notices that the device is sounding an alarm, but the explosion seems to happen unexpectedly.

Also a news agency AP’s an expert interviewed has said that the explosion is not in any way reminiscent of a lithium-ion battery fire.

Claim: The explosion was triggered by an external signal

Experts agree that the explosions were not accidental.

“Regardless of whether the explosion occurred with the help of an explosive or a battery, it must have been triggered somehow,” says Halunen.

According to Halusen, both the timer and the signal coming from outside that would trigger the explosion are possible causes. It is possible that the signal has come through the radio network either to the paging device itself or to a separate system hidden in the paging device.

“Very difficult speculation,” Halunen stresses.

Halunen points out that whatever the cause of the explosions, it is likely that not all the pagers that were targeted exploded. This means that some unexploded search devices will probably be examined, and the cause of the explosion can also be determined.

“Unless, for some reason, they don’t end up in the hands of those who would analyze them publicly,” says Halunen.

Claim: There was a hidden explosive in the pagers

“Perhaps if I had to make my own guess, it would go to the side of the explosive, but I wouldn’t mortgage the house with this information yet,” says Halunen.

Also an information security expert Mikko Hyppönen quoth To Yle on Tuesday that he considered it most likely that explosives had been hidden in the search devices somewhere along the supply chain.

The news agency Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday that based on the information it received from security sources, the pagers that exploded are the “newest models” used by Hezbollah, which have been acquired for use by the extremist organization in the previous months.

I want to according to it is clear that the series of pager explosions has required a wide range of skills and some kind of access to the devices.

This is also why, based on Tuesday’s events, ordinary citizens do not need to start fearing the use of electronics or planned explosions of lithium-ion batteries, says Halunen.

“It’s far-fetched to have some monstrous new opportunity that anyone can use for anything that has a battery.”