An expert to “Akhbar Alaan” commenting on the explosions in Lebanon: Any device that is likely to be exposed to a virus causes increased pressure on the battery and then it burns
Over the past two days, I have witnessed Lebanon Two unprecedented incidents, after the explosion of devices Pager Which is used by Hezbollah elements, and the explosion of the walkie-talkie devices on Wednesday, which is also used by Hezbollah, which left dead and more than 3,000 injured.
Following this, many wondered whether smartphones and AirPods were also vulnerable to this type of accident and explosion.
Smoke rises from a mobile phone shop as civil defense personnel gather in Sidon, Lebanon. (Reuters)
In addition, many families in Lebanon began circulating audio recordings in which they advised each other to be careful and not to click on any links from an unknown source that might be sent to them, for fear of the phone exploding or similar incidents occurring, which necessitated an investigation to determine whether the phones were safe or not.
Concerns
“Akhbar Alaan” contacted Bilal Asaad, an expert in information security and artificial intelligence, who confirmed that: “There are many concerns about what happened,” noting that smart phones, wireless phones, pagers, electric cars, and other things related to the Internet, which contain batteries, “are vulnerable to explosion, combustion, and remote destruction.”
Speaking about what happened in Lebanon, Asaad said: “Perhaps the company that produced or made these devices had prior knowledge of who would purchase these devices and the countries they would go to, and then something was placed in these devices to control them remotely, but I rule out this point because I do not expect that the security breach reached this extent.”
The expert in information security and artificial intelligence also explained that: “Any device is likely to be hacked or have a malicious program or virus downloaded onto it, which then causes increased pressure on the device’s battery, leading to the battery burning out.”
He continued: “Of course, the lithium battery has an increase in temperature, and it burns, and thus the device explodes.”
Battery control
Asaad pointed out that: “The battery is controlled by special programs on the mobile phone, and if a malfunction, virus or hack occurs in the device and the programs are unable to control and manage the situation in the proper way, the hacker can do something to make this battery exceed its capacity, and thus burn or explode.”
To clarify, the devices that were targeted in Lebanon are pagers and walkie-talkies, which are carried by the police and several other entities. These devices operate with radio waves, so when they are used for a long time, they cause problems.
Finally, Asaad noted: “This matter depends on technology and cyber security. It is considered unethical even in wars, because through this action, the rope is mixed up with the arrow, and there will be no complete evidence of the carrier of the device, whether he is a civilian or a combatant. Here, the possibility of harming civilians is very likely.”
On Wednesday, a new wave of bombings of Hezbollah communications devices in Lebanon left hundreds dead and wounded across the country, renewing fears of a comprehensive war in the region.
This came the day after a similar unprecedented attack that the party attributed to Israel, hours after the Hebrew state announced expanding the objectives of the war against the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip to include its northern border with Lebanon.
A number of wireless communication devices exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut, coinciding with the funeral of Hezbollah members who were killed on Tuesday in similar explosions, according to a source close to Hezbollah and an ambulance service affiliated with the party.
The source reported that “a number of wireless communication devices exploded in the southern suburb of Beirut,” while an ambulance agency affiliated with Hezbollah confirmed the explosion of communication devices in two cars in the southern suburb.
