Explained: How Pagers Were Used as Explosives in Lebanon—Can Your Phone Be Turned into a Bomb by Hackers? Unlikely

In a shocking and tragic incident in Lebanon on September 18, hundreds of pagers, reportedly used by the militant group Hezbollah, exploded simultaneously across the country. The blasts resulted in at least nine fatalities and over 3,000 injuries. One particularly harrowing piece of video footage shows a man shopping in a grocery store when the pager at his waist detonated, hurling him to the ground while bystanders scrambled for safety. This incident has triggered speculation about the causes behind the explosions and raised concerns about the potential for similar attacks using smartphones.

Can Hackers Turn Your Phone into a Bomb?

With smartphones being so prevalent and dependent on lithium-ion batteries, the question arises: could hackers turn these devices into bombs? While the potential cannot be entirely dismissed, several factors make such an occurrence highly improbable.

Hezbollah’s use of pagers, considered more secure than smartphones, was driven by their desire to avoid Israeli intelligence surveillance. Pagers, with their simple hardware, are harder to track and less susceptible to digital hacking compared to modern smartphones. Nevertheless, both pagers and smartphones rely on lithium-ion batteries, which do carry certain risks.

Lithium-ion batteries are favored for their high energy density and rechargeability but are not immune to failure. Overheating, overcharging, or physical damage can lead to battery overheating and, in rare instances, explosions. Manufacturing defects and design flaws also contribute to the risk. While smartphone explosions are rare, they typically occur due to overheating from prolonged use, external damage, or faulty components. These incidents are usually isolated and more often related to manufacturing defects or misuse rather than coordinated attacks.

The Hezbollah pager explosions suggest a more intricate scenario involving tampered devices embedded with explosive materials during manufacturing. According to a New York Times report, Israel allegedly placed explosives inside pagers ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, though the company denies these claims. A switch was supposedly used to remotely trigger the explosions. If a similar tactic were applied to smartphones, it would require precise interference in the supply chain or a method to trigger the devices remotely, possibly using a coordinated radio signal or electronic pulse.

In theory, such a tactic could be applied to smartphones. Their complex software and network connections might provide more opportunities for remote manipulation, especially if vulnerabilities in the device’s firmware are exploited. However, executing such an attack on a large scale would be exceedingly difficult due to the diverse range of smartphone brands, models, and software systems. The varied security protocols of modern smartphones make widespread breaches much harder to achieve.

Smartphones, by themselves, do not explode. Even if hackers were to manipulate them to overheat by altering the current flow, mass explosions are unlikely. Most modern phones have built-in safety measures to manage heat. For example, iPhones will automatically cut off charging if they start to overheat, even in extreme conditions like Delhi’s heat.

Additionally, modern smartphones are equipped with advanced cooling systems that help dissipate heat. These devices often use vapor chambers and graphite cooling systems to evenly distribute and manage heat, with liquid evaporating and condensing to cool the device, while graphite layers assist in heat conduction away from crucial components like the processor.

In cases where smartphones are manipulated to overheat, the result is more likely to be battery swelling or leakage rather than an explosion. While isolated incidents of phones catching fire do occur, actual explosions are extremely rare.

What is a Pager?

Pagers, once a common communication tool in the 1990s before the advent of mobile phones, are basic devices that receive short messages via radio frequencies. Although largely outdated, their simple hardware is still utilized by some groups as a low-tech alternative to smartphones. Hezbollah’s use of pagers underscores their preference for security and anonymity, as their simpler technology makes them harder to track compared to modern smartphones.

The incident occurs against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions, with ongoing conflicts between Hezbollah and Israel, further intensified by the war in Gaza.