Possible to trigger at battery explosions in pagers ?

[mikeselectricstuff]

If I'm reading the spec correctly for POCSAG - it's only an 18-bit address ID.  262144 possible combinations.  At 2400 bit/s with 16 coded messages per packet (~800bits packet) you could spam every pager over the course of an hour or two with a high power transmitter.  Although if the pagers were modified, it could just be as simple as receiving a dedicated coded packet at the right time, they may well have had modified firmware.

They had access to the pagers, so also could have recorded the IDs. As a new batch they may even have been consecutive

[Karel]

Israeli shell company behind explosive pagers used by Hezbollah - NYT

The report explained that while the company did produce regular pagers for other clients, those manufactured
for Hezbollah were “produced separately, they contained batteries laced with explosive.”


https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-820815

[mikeselectricstuff]

Israeli shell company behind explosive pagers used by Hezbollah - NYT

The report explained that while the company did produce regular pagers for other clients, those manufactured
for Hezbollah were “produced separately, they contained batteries laced with explosive.”


https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-820815

Hungary-based pagers manufacturing company BAC Consulting, which manufactured the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, was an Israeli shell company, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing three intelligence officers.

he report explained that while the company did produce regular pagers for other clients, those manufactured for Hezbollah were “produced separately, they contained batteries laced with explosive.”

Assuming the battery was a captive rechargeable, that would definitely be the place to put it - plenty of volume, sealed so hard to inspect and won't trigger vapour detection, and you could maybe even use the actual battery part as an initiator.

If you are the actual manufacturer, you can do pretty much anything & make it undetectable and behave exactly how you want.

The hard part is making sure the target  buys them from you .

[Jeroen3]

There must be some duds. I expect more detailed reports soon.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I do wonder if "manufacturing" was simply reselling - think about the resources needed to make a product like that - my guess is they were simply buying from the Taiwanese manufacturer, reshipping to "normal" clients and modifying the "specials".

I'd be surprised if the Tiawanese company weren't at least suspicious that something fishy was going on, considering how they reacted - taking down info and claiming they were being "manufactured" in Hungary.

[mikeselectricstuff]

There must be some duds. I expect more detailed reports soon.

Yeh, would love to get my hands on one of these for a teardown -I have some thick polycarbonate for shielding 

[Andy Chee]

There must be some duds. I expect more detailed reports soon.

Yeh, would love to get my hands on one of these for a teardown -I have some thick polycarbonate for shielding 

And a faraday cage laboratory?

[Phil1977]

I hope some people in the world can exactly trace where the modified pagers have been placed. Hopefully no surplus of this production went into a cheap offer for some rescue service or similar 

Though it quite clearly shows what´s wrong with the world. Many people experience real life war while others sit in a safe place and wonder if it´s still safe to order on ebay. And the people who suffer from war rarely are the ones who cause it.

[vad]

The Japanese manufacturer of the explosive walkie-talkies stated that production, including that of the batteries, ended many years ago. Did the Lebanese terrorist organization purchase counterfeit clones from the same shell company?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6ezre8xr4o

"The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” Icom said in a statement.
“The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company.”

[tom66]

There are many reports of eye and facial injuries, which suggests the devices were perhaps configured to 'ring' for some time before detonating, provoking the user to try to read the display. 

[MT]

NYT: BAC Consulting, which manufactured the pagers was an Israeli shell company, citing three US intelligence officers who further said that an additional" two shell companies"
were created. So now all sorts of electronic devices will explode around the world depending if you define israel as an zionist apartheid terrorist state or not. Camera battery,
phone battery, toy battery etc?! I like to know the names of these other two IDF/Aman/Unit8200 front companies are.

[madires]

I do wonder if "manufacturing" was simply reselling - think about the resources needed to make a product like that - my guess is they were simply buying from the Taiwanese manufacturer, reshipping to "normal" clients and modifying the "specials".

BAC Consulting seems to be a small vendor, just reselling stuff. And they told that they cooperate with Gold Apollo. A Hungarian government spokesperson confirmed that BAC Consulting is just a reseller.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taiwan-firm-denies-making-pagers-used-lebanon-explosions-rcna171594

[MT]

According to NYT B.C.A was not a reseller but a manufacturer operated by Israeli military.
NYT artickle in full. https://archive.fo/Kv6cP

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.
B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.
The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.
Some of Mr. Nasrallah’s fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. According to three intelligence officials, Israel had invested millions in developing the technology, and word spread among Hezbollah and its allies that no cellphone communication — even encrypted messaging apps — was safe anymore.

[Njk]

The bad thing is that because of the extensive media coverage worldwide, more fools are now aware of that method. Expect more copycat actions as it's easy to follow something learned from others.

The good thing is that it can eventually result in regulations prohibiting selling a device that can't be easily disassembled by user

[Zucca]

The good thing is that it can eventually result in regulations prohibiting selling a device that can't be easily disassembled by user

...or exactely the opposite, so that you can tell if the device was tampered after production. 
Assuming there is something left to check/analyze.....

Anyway the Israeli EE (will) surely design the toy to go KABOOM when you try to open it....

[Njk]

Anyway the Israeli EE (will) surely design the toy to go KABOOM when you try to open it....

It's not an atomic bomb. The explosion is relatively weak because of small charge amount. The key assumption is it's a surprise for victim. An elementary protection measure will be enough. Those who ignored it, relying on a service provided by others over the DYI way, will be punished for that. User error.

[MT]

[EEVblog]

United Nations explosion damage calculator!
https://unsaferguard.org/un-saferguard/blast-damage-estimation

[Xena E]

I'm always annoyed when something like this happens because the "experts" all crawl out of the woodwork, all with an axe to grind.

If I read: "reports have stated that..." or " intelligence officers have said" or similar, I'm pretty damn sure what I'm being told is a complete pile of bullshit that some lazyarsed hack reporter has just made up.

Also, reporting incidents like this is like reporting kids throwing rocks at cars from bridges, it just gives other arseholes ideas how to get their kicks.

This was either a membership control own goal, or a very cunning bit of logistics. I don't know why anyone is amazed by it? The technology is relatively simple, it's only the planning that was problematic.

There must be some duds. I expect more detailed reports soon.

Yeh, would love to get my hands on one of these for a teardown -I have some thick polycarbonate for shielding 

If you pulled that off it would swell the subs wouldn't it?

Regards,
X

[Andy Chee]

I don't know why anyone is amazed by it? The technology is relatively simple, it's only the planning that was problematic.

Not everyone is familiar with explosives technology, and how little of it is necessary to do harm.

[EEVblog]

This was either a membership control own goal, or a very cunning bit of logistics. I don't know why anyone is amazed by it? The technology is relatively simple, it's only the planning that was problematic.

It's amazing because they spent several years setting up a front company that bought the rights to the pager brand and then arranged the manufacture rights as well, and then designed and made 5000 of them with charges inside with remote trigger capability, and then made sure they were the trusted provider who got thousands of these things into people's hands without getting detected.
It's very impressive.

BTW, don't be surprised to see changes in regards to security screening electronics equipment at airports as a result.

[Xena E]

I don't know why anyone is amazed by it? The technology is relatively simple, it's only the planning that was problematic.

Not everyone is familiar with explosives technology, and how little of it is necessary to do harm.

No, not individuals, though an organisation or country would.

I wouldn't mind taking the bet that you could easily find hundreds of EEV members that could quickly provide the tech knowledge in a small team.

As for the ordinance, yeah not a problem, a college chemist or two...

[Dundarave]

Here’s an interesting theory from todays Canada’s Globe & Mail (Eric Reguly):

“One of Italy’s top security experts, Umberto Rapetto, a former commander of the high-tech crime unit of the Guardia di Finanza, or Financial Guard, the semi-military national police force within the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the pager attacks had a Mission Impossible nature about them. But he played down the reports the explosives might have been planted somewhere around their supply chain.

He told The Globe he believed Hezbollah itself planted explosives in the pagers as a security measure. “If a Hezbollah member were captured with his pager, his captors could examine the communication history stored in the devices,” he said. “To avoid this risk, Hezbollah must be able to render the devices unusable in a hurry.”

He said it is possible that Israel’s intelligence agencies intercepted, or were leaked, the destruction codes for each device. “They could then send the codes to those thousands of devices all at once to the pagers’ network,” he said.”


TLDR: a theory that Hezbollah wanted the pagers to be explodable when they bought them, as a security destruction mechanism.

[ataradov]

You can readily receive and collect all the messages. Even exploded pager would have a serial number, you can go back to the saved messages and retrieve the full history.

This way you don't need to know who owns individual ones before the capture, since that's harder logistically, assuming no supply chain attack.

[Xena E]

This was either a membership control own goal, or a very cunning bit of logistics. I don't know why anyone is amazed by it? The technology is relatively simple, it's only the planning that was problematic.

It's amazing because they spent several years setting up a front company that bought the rights to the pager brand and then arranged the manufacture rights as well, and then designed and made 5000 of them with charges inside with remote trigger capability, and then made sure they were the trusted provider who got thousands of these things into people's hands without getting detected.
It's very impressive.

BTW, don't be surprised to see changes in regards to security screening electronics equipment at airports as a result.

As for the airport thing, I'd expect nothing else.

It may be that nothing with manufacturers installed batteries would be allowed, a return to the replaceable commodity batteries in phones needing purchase after your travel.

That will be a PITA.