On September 17, 2024, electronic pagers across Lebanon exploded instantly, injuring more than 2,700 people and killing 12 others. The following morning, another flood of explosions in the country came from detonating walkie-talkies. People of the violent party Hezbollah were reportedly the targets of the problems.
According to US officers cited by The New York Times, the pagers attack involved bombs that Israeli employees planted in the communications products. According to the report, Hezbollah had just ordered a package of pagers.
Quietly attacking the supply chain is hardly a new tactic employed in intelligence and military operations. According to a 2010 NSA inside document, the US National Security Agency intercepted computer hardware intended for international customers, inserted malware or additional surveillance devices, and then repackaged it for shipment to specific foreign customers.
This is different from gaining access to a certain person’s computer, as happened in 1996 when Israel’s Shin Bet allegedly injected bombs into a cellphone to mildly shoot a Hamas bombmaker.
Hezbollah, a lifelong attack of Israel, had increased its use of pagers in the midst of the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. By shifting to somewhat low-tech communication products, including pagers and walkie-talkies, Hezbollah evidently sought an edge against Israel’s well-known intelligence in recording targets through their phones.
Cellphones: The best monitor
In addition to users, criminals, and the mobile phone company itself, I see mobile devices as the main tracking tool for both government and business entities as a previous cybersecurity professional and latest security researcher. Mobile phone scanning has thus helped to fight terrorism, find missing people, and solve crimes.
Likewise, wireless phone monitoring makes it easy for anyone to report a person’s most personal movements. This can be done for good, such as parental monitoring of children’s activities, assisting you in finding your vehicle in a parking lot, and promoting wicked interests like tracking a partner who is suspected of cheating on or tracking social activists and journalists. Perhaps the US military is still concerned about how its military might be able to be tracked by their phones.
Mobile machine tracking is accomplished in a variety of ways. First, there is the system location data that the phone generates as it passes nearby Crocodile devices or local cell towers, which law enforcement uses to imitate cell towers.
Additionally, there are the features that are integrated into the camera’s operating system or enabled by saved software, which users accidentally consent to by disobeying the computer’s protection plan or terms of service.
Sometimes, governments or other organizations sell the collected data for further person profiling and data mining. Additionally, modern smartphones come with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS capabilities that can assist with tracking and capturing user movements both on the floor and via satellites.
Mobile devices may be tracked in real- or near-real-time. Popular technological methods include traditional stereo direction-finding techniques, using intelligence satellites or drones, deploying “man in the middle” tools like Stingrays to deceive mobile towers to catch and remove device traffic, or installing malware such as Pegasus, made by Jewish cyberarms company NSO to record a device’s location.
Using less advanced and less time-efficient methods, users may be able to determine general user locations based on their online activity. This can be done by using website logs or the metadata contained in social media posts, or by working with data brokers to obtain location data from apps that users might download to their devices.
Indeed, because of these vulnerabilities, the leader of Hezbollah earlier this year advised his members to avoid using cellular phones in their activities, noting that Israel’s” surveillance devices are in your pockets. Look at the phone in your hands as well as those of your children if you’re looking for the Israeli agent.
Researchers have shown how these features, often intended for the user’s convenience, can be used by governments, companies and criminals to track people in their daily lives and even predict movements. Many people still are n’t aware of how much information their mobile devices reveal about them.
Pagers, however, unlike mobile phones, can be harder to track depending on whether they support two-way communication.
Why go low-tech
A pager that only records messages is unable to provide a tracking signal for its owner. Therefore, Hezbollah’s use of pagers likely made it more challenging to track their operatives– thus motivating Israeli intelligence services ‘ purported attack on the supply chain of Hezbollah’s pagers.
After the 9/11 attacks, it became difficult for the technologically superior Western intelligence agencies to locate Osama bin Laden for years by using low-tech tactics and personal couriers while avoiding the use of mobile phones and digital tools.
In general, I think the adversary in an asymmetric conflict that employs low-tech strategies, tactics, and technology will almost always be able to compete successfully against a more powerful and well-funded foe.
The US military’s Millennium Challenge war game from 2002 is a well-known illustration of this anomaly in action. Among other things, the insurgent Red forces, led by Marine General Paul van Riper, used low-tech tactics including motorcycle couriers instead of cellphones to evade the Blue forces ‘ high-tech surveillance.
The Red team won the contest within 24 hours of the exercise’s start, forcing the exercise planners to controversially reset and update the scenario to ensure a Blue team victory.
Lessons for everyone
Everyone is reminded that you can be and are likely to be tracked in various ways and for various purposes by terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and al-Qaida by not using smartphones.
Israel’s purported response to Hezbollah’s actions also holds a lesson for everyone. It demonstrates that any device in your life can be compromised by a hacker before you even receive it, in terms of cybersecurity.
Richard Forno is principal lecturer in computer science and electrical engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.