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Israel’s pager attacks have changed the world
Our supply chains are vulnerable, which means that we are vulnerable.
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A communication device on the ground as Lebanese army forces prepare to destroy it in a controlled explosion, in southern Lebanon, on Sept 19.
PHOTO: AFP
Bruce Schneier
Israel’s brazen attacks on Hezbollah last week, in which hundreds of pagers and two-way radios exploded and killed at least 37 people, graphically illustrated a threat that cyber-security experts have been warning about for years: Our international supply chains for computerised equipment leave us vulnerable. And we have no good means to defend ourselves.
Though the deadly operations were stunning, none of the elements used to carry them out was particularly new. The tactics employed by Israel – which has neither confirmed nor denied any role – to hijack an international supply chain and embed plastic explosives in Hezbollah devices have been used for years. What’s new is that Israel put them together in such a devastating and extravagantly public fashion, bringing into stark relief what the future of great power competition will look like – in peacetime, wartime and the ever-expanding grey zone in between.
