"The only component that can burn in a smartphone is the battery," an expert points out. (Credit: AFP)
The simultaneous detonation of thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah across Lebanon on Tuesday and then a similar targeting of walkie-talkies on Wednesday has caused concern among the general public about the risk of smartphones being hacked and posing a threat to people's safety.
These pagers that exploded on Tuesday were widely used in the 1980s and 1990s to transmit short messages and were rendered almost obsolete by the arrival of smartphones, although they're still often used in hospitals.
These small devices use their own radio frequency without passing through mobile phone networks, which can experience interruptions, connection issues, or communication interceptions.
While the method that was used to detonate these devices in Lebanon has not yet determined with certainty, videos of the damage and testimonies of the explosions have raised questions about the risks associated with using smartphones or computers.
The battery, the only risky element
"The only thing that can burn in a smartphone is the battery. That's the problem with lithium-ion batteries," explains Adrien Demarez, a telecom engineer. These components, found in mobile phones, computers, and even electric cars, bikes, and scooters, can become "small bombs" due to the risk of their contents combusting. While such accidents happen regularly, they remain relatively rare compared to the number of devices in circulation, says Sylvain Chevallier, a telecom specialist and partner at the consulting firm Bearing Point.
Regarding the power of these components' explosions, it is also limited. "Considering the size of a smartphone battery, it's not the same kind of explosion as what's seen in the videos circulating of Hezbollah's pagers," points out Adrien Demarez.
"Hardware attacks exist," Adrien Demarez notes, referring to an experiment conducted in 2020 by a laboratory of Chinese giant Tencent. Naming their operation "BadPower," the researchers claimed to trigger smartphone combustion by hacking chargers to cause an overcharge. Nevertheless, these attacks required direct contact between a charger and a smartphone.
"I am not aware of any way to remotely detonate a battery in standard unmodified equipment such as a smartphone," says Demarez. In the extreme case where a hack could heat a phone or computer battery, he explains, the process would be gradual, not sudden, as was the case the exploding pagers. A hacker with such extensive skills "will probably have better things to do than trying to heat an iPhone," Chevallier says. The main thing to worry about when it comes to smartphone security remains data theft.
Production chain risks
One of the hypotheses, that an explosive charge was introduced in the pagers that exploded, raises concerns regarding the safety and security of production chains. Chevallier notes that manufacturing control "depends on each company" but remains crucial should a company be concerned with maintaining its "brand image" and subsequent marketability.
In 2016, Samsung recalled 2.5 million of its smartphones as a result of defects that could lead to phones catching fire. The South Korean group concluded that the batteries were the cause of the problem and ultimately decided not to market the model.
