Highlights

• Lebanon’s Pager Explosions were reportedly caused by tampered pagers.
• Pagers could be carrying small amounts of explosive material.
• The exact mechanism still remains unclear.
• Pagers are a low-tech communication device from the 90s.

It’s been a day since the shocking Pager explosions in Lebanon that left nine dead and close to 3000 injured, the exact mechanism used in the attack is still unclear. Many experts believe the simultaneous detonation of multiple Pagers was triggered remotely. The pagers were likely tampered with and were carrying small amounts of explosive material.

Speculation about motive, potential suspect, and target are overflowing with no official confirmation from authorities.

However, the most surprising thing about the attack is the use of pagers. Who would have thought that a low-tech communication device that was largely believed to be safe was controlled remotely to cause mass destruction

Let’s understand more about the “outdated” tech.

What Are Pagers?

Pagers are primarily 90s tech and probably the first instant messaging consumer devices. They are also known as the earliest form of handheld mobile communication. The tech was simpler than the mobile phones that came in later.

These devices allowed users to get short messages. It was often just a sentence long. The devices were mostly used to share updates or give direction.

However, these were receive-only and had no functionality for users to send messages back.

How Do Pagers Work?

Radio waves are used to send messages on Pagers. It is like a small radio that can receive short written messages.

When a message is transmitted over a specific radio frequency, it can be received by any pager tuned to that frequency.

However, Pagers also provide private messaging ability.

Each pager comes with a unique number, similar to mobile phones.

The message can only be decoded and displayed by the pager associated with the number. Other pagers on the same network can only sense the signal but cannot read the message because the numbers are different.

Why Does Lebanon Still Use Pagers?

There are no credible sources that reveal the reasons why Lebanon is still using pagers. However, it can be inferred that the answer lies in the tense geopolitical situation.

Below are some of the speculated reasons why such an outdated tech is still being used in some parts of the world when more advanced and reliable communication devices are so readily available.

Not Traceable

One of the biggest reasons why organizations such as Hezbollah relied on pagers for their one-way communication is its non-traceability.

Pagers only receive messages via radio frequencies. So, these cannot be traced or tracked.  Mobile phones, on the other hand, send and receive signals. This makes it possible to track the location of the user via mobile phone network signals.

Hard to Hack

Pagers are based on simple tech. No components of a Pager can be hacked, unlike mobile phones or computers. The messages sent via radio waves can be intercepted.

Meanwhile, multiple reports suggest that the pagers used in the Lebanon attack were newly purchased from a Taiwanese manufacturer. The company in response has informed that the batch of pagers used in the attack were produced by a European distributor.

While more speculations about the attack, possible motive, and how or why pagers were used are surfacing, it is important to wait for official confirmation before making any assumption.

FAQs

 What caused the Pager explosions in Lebanon?

Answer, The explosions were reportedly caused by tampered Pagers carrying small amounts of explosive material. The exact mechanism of the attack is still unclear, but it is believed that the pagers were triggered remotely.

Why are Pagers still used in Lebanon?

Answer. Pagers are still used in Lebanon due to their non-traceability and resistance to hacking. They receive messages via radio frequencies, making them difficult to track or hack, unlike mobile phones.

How do Pagers work?

Pagers receive short written messages transmitted over specific radio frequencies. Each pager has a unique number, allowing only the intended pager to decode and display the message, while others on the same network can only sense the signal.

Lebanon Pager Blasts: Where and when were the explosions?

The explosions happened at 3:30 p.m. local time
(12:30 GMT in Beirut’s Dahiyeh area and the Bekaa valley, Hezbollah’s presence.

The detonations continued for about an hour, with some witnesses reporting ongoing explosions until 4:30 p.m. (17:30 GMT).

As reported by Reuters, the security sources and footage explained that the explosions occurred shortly after the pagers rang, leading some individuals to hold or check the devices.

What is the Explosive Mechanism of Pagers?

Report suggest that Israel may have concealed explosives inside pagers purchased from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, which were intended for Hezbollah.

The devices reportedly contained a remote detonation switch.
Gold Apollo’s founder denied involvement, stating that the pagers were made by a European company licensed to use their brand.

Hezbollah had recently adopted pagers, believing they would evade Israeli tracking. According to sources, the devices used in the explosions were the latest model acquired by Hezbollah.

A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

The company has said that production of several models of the ICOM hand-held radio have been discontinued, including the IC-V82, which appeared to closely match those in images from Lebanon on Wednesday and which was phased out in 2014.

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hez­bollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, a security source said.

Why are mobile phones so trackable?

Hezbollah is aware of the threat posed by using mobile phones. In February, the group’s general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah, warned supporters their phones were more dangerous than Israeli spies, saying they should break, bury or lock the devices in an iron box.

Mobile phones can be used to track someone’s location because they regularly “ping” masts as they move around, allowing their signal to move to different masts in the network.

“The phone is constantly pinging away to stay in touch with whatever network it is using,” said Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University.

If you monitored the network, you could locate the signal from a specific phone, he said, by seeing which masts were interacting with the device and locating the handset within the overlapping ranges of those masts. In urban areas, the density of masts makes for an accurate zeroing-in process.

“You can do a simple triangulation,” said Woodward.

GPS receivers on phones – used for mapping apps, for instance – also give a device’s location, although you would need to hack your way inside a phone to receive that information.

As a safety move, therefore, Hezbollah turned to pagers, which listen out for a signal from transmission networks in order to receive a message but do not “ping” back.
There is no communication made by the pager to monitor, Woodward said.

“You cannot locate the pager because it is doing nothing but listening,” he said.

However, Hezbollah clearly did not anticipate the device itself being used as a potential weapon.

Referring to the walkie-talkie explosions on Wednesday, Woodward said the devices could be tracked because they communicated with each other via radio frequencies, but that tracking was a difficult task and they were not as vulnerable as mobile phones, which may have been why Hezbollah used them.
The group did not appear to have suspected that they would be used as explosive weapons.

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