We still don’t know how the Lebanon pager attack happened. Here’s what we know about our own electronic devices

New York
CNN
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So far, attacks on the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah via their pagers have had a devastating effect. At least nine people have been killed, including an eight-year-old girl, and some 2,800 wounded. More than 150 of the wounded are in critical condition, according to the Lebanese health minister.

It’s important to note that the exact cause of the explosions has not yet been confirmed, with news evolving by the minute. So far, experts who spoke to CNN have said the explosions were most likely triggered by hardware tampering, rather than another theory of a cybersecurity breach that caused the lithium batteries to heat up and explode — but neither of those claims have been confirmed by authorities.

In short, the communications device is not at risk of exploding unless it is heavily modified and filled with explosives, according to experts who spoke to CNN.

The explosions came as Israel and Hezbollah have been launching months of attacks on each other in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas. The IDF 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 have lost popularity to cell phones, some industries, such as healthcare, still rely on them.

Justin Cappos, a professor of cybersecurity at NYU, said it’s possible that multiple batteries could be damaged — most commonly lithium batteries, which have caused dangerous fires. But he said it appears that “the devices are intentionally designed to explode when they’re triggered, not like a pager that everyone else in the world uses.”

“If you’re a normal person with a lithium-ion battery, I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Cappos said.

Baptiste Robert, a cybersecurity researcher and CEO of Predicta Lab, said the pagers were most likely not hacked but modified before shipping.

He added that the scale of the explosion indicated it was a coordinated and sophisticated attack.

Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at security and risk management consulting firm Le Beck International, also said the explosion was likely caused by a modification to the devices rather than a cyberattack.

“We have never seen this tactic used on this scale, but that does indicate that this is not an attack that would affect all pagers. If true, it would suggest very high penetration into Hezbollah’s supply chain for these devices,” Horowitz said in an email.

When it comes to battery safety, the National Fire Protection Association has a set of safety guidelines for lithium batteries, such as how to dispose of them properly. The association also said people should stop using devices with lithium-ion batteries if the battery shows any signs of damage due to the risk of fire or explosion.

In 2016, Samsung infamously announced a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7, citing “battery cell issues” that caused the device to catch fire and sometimes explode. Even then, however, reports numbered in the dozens, not thousands, and didn’t involve a simultaneous event.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, approximately 500,000 hoverboards were recalled in 2016 due to the risk of “burning and/or exploding.”

It is unclear what type of batteries the pagers in question had. A Lebanese security source told CNN that Hezbollah recently purchased the devices.

Christian Edwards, Adrienne Vogt and Aditi Sangal contributed to this report.