Forum Topic

Hezbolla

Probably spelt it wrong but my son said, all their pagers have blown up in their pockets etc. Set off by Israel, all went off together.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d17 Comments

On our evening news.  My son was an 1hr ahead of England. Loads of casualties.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d

The BBC: "Hezbollah said it was investigating the cause of the blasts and did not directly accuse Israel of being behind them."

Freddie Francis ● 766d

Reutres: "Lebanon's information minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive "its fair punishment"."

Freddie Francis ● 766d

Something todo with hacking them all. about 2780. sorry doing dinner.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d

Scary, if this is a hardware supply chain compromise. Wasn't effected someway in the manufacturing process or in the distribution network? Is there a possibility some devices in a compromised batch have gone elsewhere to innocent recipients?

Michael Ixer ● 766d

Think something had been put in the pagers. How I don't know I'll ask my son see if he knows. He's and electronics engineer.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d

《Predictive》 caught me out there as I rushed to write on the tube:"Was it effected somewhere ...", plus missing URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyl9048gx8t

Michael Ixer ● 766d

This could well lead to escalation, and then how will the US Presidential election go?

David Ainsworth ● 766d

Just read on news they were made in Taiwan, Israel planted explosives in them. That's what they think.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d

And from Washington Post:-"But the [Taiwanese] company said Wednesday in a statement that it did not manufacture the AR-924 pagers but that they were “entirely handled” by a company called BAC Consulting Kft. The Hungarian company was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s brand trademark in some regions, it said." I wouldn't want to be the person in charge of the Hezbollah purchasing department currently.

David Ainsworth ● 766d

David, you obviously found more info, more up to date.

Barbara Stevens ● 766d

"David, you obviously found more info, more up to date."Thanks. I don't know how true it may be, of course. Still Reuters also have it.https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-planted-explosives-hezbollahs-taiwan-made-pagers-say-sources-2024-09-18/

David Ainsworth ● 766d

David. Yes, it's on BBC TV News and website. Picture shows the Gold Apollo branding but the Taiwanese owners of the brand say they licenced it to BAC Consulting in Hungary who manufactured that model of pagers. I wonder who the actual manufacturer was? Yes, it would be interesting to know what due diligence was done by Hezbollah when they purchased the pagers - did they just go for the cheapest option!? And how well did the Taiwanese company check out who they were licensing their brand to? Were they just happy to accept a large amount of cash for it? Or, because the Hungarian company had previously been a distributor of Gold Apollo products did the branding deal just get rubber stamped without further checks?Interesting, because supply chain security and reliability has been a rising issue in the Infosec/Cyber world, but mainly around software and services rather than hardware. It's possible the explosives were inserted by a manufacturer or distribution subcontractor of BAC or have Israeli intelligence set up companies specifically to do this?I suppose not really a Putney issue unless one's still using a pager ...

Michael Ixer ● 766d

Hungary --> Orban. Hmm.

David Ainsworth ● 766d

The money came from the, er, Middle East to Taiwan from a Hungarian registered company ... I bet the BBC aren't the only people trying to get hold of BAC Consulting ... it's not going to do Gold Apollo's brand image much good - imagine the next time you're in a cafe and you're handed a paging disc with your food order number on it:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qvl3vlvlvo

Michael Ixer ● 766d

Gunpowder potatoes?

David Ainsworth ● 766d

'Yes, it would be interesting to know what due diligence was done by Hezbollah when they purchased the pagers'This seems to imply that Hezbollah is a well run, economically savvy, almost a respectable business who would know to carry out such activities.In fact it is a murderous, antisemitic, theocratic terrorist group; a proxy of and funded by Iran and given the mission of destroying the state of Israel.I am sure they have no idea what a supply chain is.I suspect they bought the pagers from the nearest 'Phone and Vape' in the Beirut bazaar.Some might say the consequences "couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of chaps" !

John Hawkes ● 766d