How it is possible to detonate thousands of pagers at once and why Hezbollah uses them instead of cell phones

Spain has repeatedly witnessed the risks of information warfare, which in some cases can have serious consequences beyond cyberspace, in the physical world. This was again reflected in Lebanon, where an attack took place what did he do exploit the pagers of members of the armed group Hezbollah, causing hundreds of injuries.

Members of the Hezbollah group, including medics and fighters, were injured in several locations across the country after their search engines suddenly exploded, reports Reuters. These types of devices were widely used in the era before the smart phones to find people and communicate as quickly as possible.

You are looking for them, “beepers” or “pagers” These are extremely simple little devices.s, with a small screen and a few buttons. The first models date back to the middle of the last century and are used to send small notifications or SMS messages, very similar to the old SMS. This messaging has now restricted its uses, but remains useful for certain tasks that do not require the use of a smartphoneespecially in hospitals and security companies.

A recent shipment

Pagers are, at least in theory, harder to hack than cell phonessince they are not connected to the Internet and it is more difficult to access their communications network. Despite this, they continue to depend on servers, which are the ones that centralize and distribute communications.

According to the Wall Street Journal, what happened on Tuesday could be due to A new batch of pagers recently delivered to Hezbollah commanderswhich could have been manipulated to overheat the battery and explode upon receipt of a specific message. “Some people felt the pagers getting hot and threw them away before they exploded.”

Initial reports, according to Lebanese media outlet LBCI, suggest that “the pager server was compromised, leading to the installation of a script that caused an overload.” This could be the cause of overheating. the lithium battery, which can explode when subjected to high temperaturesas has already happened on other occasions with mobile phones, laptops or electric scooters. However, pagers have very small batteries that, on their own, should not cause such damage.

An attack of this type, as demonstrated in the videos, can cause all types of physical damage to device usersfrom mild to severe, even fatal, depending on where the device was being transported at the time of the explosion.

What are you looking for?

Pagers originated in the United States and were designed as a system to easily locate members of the police force. In the 1950s, it began to become popular as what it was: pagers, thanks to Canadian telecommunications pioneer Alfred J. Gross.

In their early iterations, pagers simply sent a notification to the user’s device, forcing the user to will call a phone. This was an extremely primitive form of the traditional “hang up” and a very rudimentary version of the notification system we have today on iOS and Android. They worked with radio signals to connect a call control center to a recipient and have them receive the message.

From notifications, we moved on to basic text messages, which were usually a sentence of just a few words. Again, this was about reducing the form of today’s SMS to a bare minimum, consisting of a small device and a screen. They were so popular that they became a pop culture icon thanks to their constant appearances in series and films of the 80s and 90s.

But if calls existed, why were pagers necessary? The truth is that early analog mobile phones could call, but in no case could they send or receive SMS. There were pagers that could only receive digital messages, and others that could receive messages containing letters; there were even some that could receive and send emails.

They were known as “beeps” because when the user received the notification, a small speaker would beep. In Spain, without going any further, they also had a significant boom, especially among professionals who needed to be reachable at all times. When mobile phones began to receive and send SMS messages and they became popular, The pager eventually became unusable.

Why are they still used?

Obviously, the use that these “pagers” have today is negligible, not only when compared to its golden age, but also when compared to the use of the device itself. smartphone. However, there are companies and entities who continue to use them precisely because they are analogue devices that are sometimes more secure than mobile phones.

For example, a button. Depending on the BBC, In 2017 and 2018, it was reported that nearly 80% of UK hospitals They continued to use pagers among their professionals. Of course, updated versions equipped with a better communication system and sometimes even integrated applications. It is also known that in some Spanish hospitals and residences they continue to use these modern “pagers”.

There are many reasons for this. For starters, they are considered more reliable; because they use more powerful transmitters, they are able to send signals at greater distances, since they do not depend on mobile networks. In addition, in areas of conflict or natural disaster, it is normal for networks of this type to end up being destroyed, thus cutting off citizens. The pager is the best option to maintain communication.

This is directly related to security. That is why they continue to be used in hospitals, security companies and other types of companies to prevent information leaks. Added to this is their long-lasting battery: they work with replaceable batteries that last much longer than those of mobile phones. Of course, we must also take into account what are they gadgets much more economical than smartphones.