Re: Exploding pagers

john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:

On Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:18:26 -0500, Crash Gordon <uucp@crashelex.com>
wrote:
 

Pagers, even with a cheap LiPo battery that fails, do not explode.
Somebody built hundreds, maybe thousands, of intentionally booby-trapped
pagers and then managed to distribute them to a large group of targeted
individuals.
 
This absolutely screams "state actor" but all of the states that would
be capable of pulling it off have disavowed any connection, as would be
expected.
 
Posting is on-topic for s.e.d because these things had to be *designed*.
Targets can be expected to cross security boundaries so these pagers
had to look like normal pagers under X-ray, and had to not "smell" like
explosives.  Putting aside, for sake of discussion, the horror of the
device itself and the evil necessary to conceive and deploy it, one has
to on some level, admire the skill required to manage it.

 
It's assumed that the Israelis booby-trapped the batch of pagers that
were bought by Hezbollah. Fiendishly clever.
 
I'm surprised that anybody still makes or uses pagers.
 
 

I heard that Hezbollah had decreed cell phones were too easily compromised
so thought lower tech would be better. Presumably the explosive material
was somehow embedded within the battery assembly as that is the only
largish object inside suitable for concealment?


--
piglet