*clicketty* *click* *kaboom!*

Ed: Apologies for newsletter people that got notified that this message was published on the 6th, that was a combination of sausage fingers and noises from the construction site next door that made me twitch.

In events that could be labelled dystopian cyberwars, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah have exploded with large death and injury tolls in each case.

On Wednesday the article about the pagers expressed that it could have been a faulty batch as they were all from a large order Hezbollah made, but the latest round of exploding walkie-talkies changes the picture. Currently it’s been said Masad operatives tampered with the devices by placing explosives inside. I can’t see it, but I’m willing to consider it.

My Take:

I wonder if these devices would have room for explosives and an initiating trigger. I’ve opened a few mobile phones and pagers and there’s not much room. Even in the old models where you could change the batteries, I’m not sure. I of course don’t know what powerful explosives the – let’s just call them a “STate Actor Group” or STAG – can obtain nor how small the activating device can be made and still be able to be triggered.

And just how they could be triggered reliably all over the world.

The Go Boom Bit

I’ll deal with the explosive first. It could be a thin sheet that can be slipped into device between the electronics and the casing. I like this because it offers a way to cram a small charge into the space for maximum effect.

It could also be a blob of some explosive placed inside a doctored battery that is then fitted to the device in place of the other battery.

It could also BE the battery. Stay tuned for how.

The Trigger Circuit

There has to be something to set off the initiator/fuse. I know that some explosives can be triggered with very little, just a small current or whatever. In that case the trigger circuit could be a tiny timer on a 3mm square wafer that could be placed anywhere, set at the time of installation for a certain time.

It has the drawback that if a device battery goes flat, unless the timer has a small power source within it, it would lose all that programmed timing.

It has another drawback – you have to physically connect it to the initiator/fuse and to power as near to the battery as possible so that it is always connected. That means little wires somewhere. That means it could be seen if anyone casually popped the back off their device just for a look-see.

You could also put the explosive, I/F, and trigger circuit inside a new dummy battery case with plenty of room if you just put a smaller battery inside the case too. The devices wouldn’t hold charge for as long but you expect that with cheap devices bought at lowest price – right?

But – some explosives can be made in a thin flat sheet. If you stick your tiny timer onto that (remembering the circuit is likely to be only a few microns thick) and – do you remember the plastic sheets you stuck on your battery a few years back and it connected to the same points the battery did, and then you could use old phones on wireless chargers?

No-one would suspect anything because it would look like it was made for the battery. You only have to make two sets, one to fit the pager batteries and one to fit the talkie batteries.

Oh Yeah – The Battery Itself Bit:

The battery itself can become the explosive or the I/F for an explosive. You do need both the pager and the talkie manufacturer to be using a common charger circuit, one of the new ones that’s pretty much a chip package with just a few pins to connect. And that charging circuit has to have a vulnerability so that it can be hacked. It’s highly unlikely but it’s not outside the realms of possibility.

I’m going to be interested to see what it was.
Stay safe out there!

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