While Hezbollah officials suggested malware might have caused the explosions, cybersecurity experts propose a simpler explanation; an old fashioned booby bait. Whether it is this specific approach, this particular cyber attack could be cited as a classic example of how the cyber and the physical principles of warfare are converging in today’s conflict. Far more mind-boggling is the fact that these explosions were through a form of communication technology that is increasingly seen as archaic. This attack, that could be the work of Israel, opens up a new chapter in cyber warfare that could go way beyond the current event.
In an era where mobile phones and apps, let alone encrypted communication platforms are available at a widespread, it may look quite odd that Hezbollah is relying on pagers. However, it is not as simple as it seems when the existence of operational security in modern day warfare is considered. End-of-live hardware frequently escapes the attention paid to the sophisticated mechanisms used to protect contemporary devices. In this case, the attackers took full advantage of this very assumption and made a simple and rather harmless gadget into a lethal instrument. Though pagers are now archaic in the general scheme of things involving cyber wars and network penetrations the weakness that has been demonstrated in this area has led to huge losses of lives and interruption of business.
