Cybersecurity Expert: Pager Bombings in Lebanon Put the World at Risk

Israel's "brazen" attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon last week that blew up hundreds of pagers and two-way radios have "shockingly" demonstrated the extent of the threat that cybersecurity experts have been warning about for years, a cybersecurity expert said.

The bombings, which killed at least 37 people, threaten international computer supply chains and leave the world vulnerable “because we don’t have good ways to defend ourselves,” security technology expert Bruce Schneider added in his New York Times analysis.

Although the bombings in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday were “stunning,” the elements used to carry them out were not particularly new, Schneider said. Israel used methods that have been in place for years to “hijack” international supply chains and plant plastic explosives in electronic devices destined for Hezbollah.

But what is new, according to Schneider, who teaches at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, is that Israel has combined these elements in a destructive and exaggerated way, which clearly highlights what the future of great power competition will look like in times of peace, times of war, and everything in between.

The writer expected that such attacks would not target “terrorists” alone, as the computers in people’s hands are also at risk, “just as our cars, refrigerators, thermostats in our homes, and many useful things around us are also threatened.”

Source: New York Times