The Costs and Perils of Weaponizing Consumer Technologies (The 2024 Pager and Walkie-Talkie Explosions in Lebanon and Syria)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20362575 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrea Lavazza (0000-0003-2608-2609, Pegaso University), Mirko Farina (0000-0001-8342-6549, Human Machine Interaction Laboratory (HMI Lab) Institute for Digital Economy and Artificial Systems (IDEAS) Xiamen University and Lomonosov Moscow State University, Xiamen, Fujian, China) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 68-71 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | IEEE Technology and Society Magazine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0278-0097 • E-ISSN: 1937-416X |
| Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1109/mts.2024.3489656 |
| OpenAlex | W4404688680 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
On 17 September 2024, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by civilians, an unspecified portion of which belonged to militants of the political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon exploded simultaneously, killing dozens of users (including innocent children), maiming thousands, and creating chaos and panic in the streets.1 The attack was repeated across Lebanon the day after, on 18 September 2024, and allegedly involved detonations of other electronic devices (including those containing solar and lithium batteries). 2 Those who committed this crime did not carefully select their targets; rather let explosions thunder in hospitals, markets, streets, shops, and even pharmacies. This was a coordinated remote-controlled operation, for which no one has formally taken responsibility so far
Business · Computer security · Economics · Environmental economics · Natural resource economics · Pager · Telecommunications · Computer Science · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |