Putting aside all politics, and purely on a mechanical level, how does anyone cause a pager to explode by remote control? I totally don't understand this at all.
eight people were killed and 2750 wounded in the pager explosions
Via: At least 8 dead, thousands wounded as pagers explode in Lebanon | RNZ News.
Thomas Beagle @Miraz The default assumption is that someone got into the pager supply chain (manufacturer - wholesaler - retailer) and booby-trapped them.
It seems highly unlikely (i.e. impossible) that this could be done by just overloading the battery.
Miraz Jordan @thomasbeagle Ah, thank you. So, could such a thing happen also to cellphones, computers etc, I wonder? Presumably customs controls and inspections of goods could prevent a pager / phone / device in NZ from being used in that way, unless the tampering occurred after import?
Miraz Jordan @alexandra Thank you. The explosives weren't mentioned in the article I read.
Patrick Rhone Oh, I can think of a few ways. The most obvious is Mosad intercepting the shipment of the pagers that the leaders of your group ordered and distributed en masse to the group memebers because they deemed your mobile phones too much of a security risk. Then, Mosad installs a small explosive charge that is triggered by a mass text sent to those pagers. Boom!
Thomas Beagle @Miraz Booby-trapped cellphones have been used before but that was targeted at a particular person. This attack is notable for the sheer scale of it.
I don't think customs inspection really looks at "are these pallets of <device> actually bombs"?
Miraz Jordan @patrickrhone Thank you. I'm often very naive, so the idea that a third party had installed extra 'stuff' didn't initially occur to me. I presumed the battery had been somehow deliberately overloaded…