In a bizarre and deadly incident in Lebanon, hundreds of pagers reportedly used by the terrorist group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously across the country on September 18. At least nine people died and more than 3,000 were injured as a result of the explosions. There is video footage from one location that shows a man shopping at a grocery store when the pager strapped to his waist suddenly exploded, causing him to fall to the ground and bystanders to flee in fear. The incident has sparked speculation about the cause of the explosions. Initial theories pointed to battery overheating, which raised another troubling question: could a similar phenomenon happen to smartphones?

Can hackers turn your phone into a bomb?

Given the ubiquity of smartphones and their reliance on lithium-ion batteries, the possibility of a similar attack using these devices cannot be ruled out, although certain factors make such an incident difficult and isolated.

Hezbollah’s adoption of the pager, which is considered more secure than the smartphone, was primarily due to concerns of surveillance by Israeli intelligence agencies. The pager, with its simpler hardware, is harder to track and less vulnerable to digital hacking than a smartphone. However, the same core technology – lithium-ion batteries – powers both the pager and the smartphone, and this technology has inherent risks.

Lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used due to their high energy density and rechargeability, are not immune to failures. Factors such as excessive heat, overcharging or physical damage can cause these batteries to overheat and, in rare cases, explode. Manufacturing defects and design flaws also contribute to the risk. For example, smartphone explosions, although uncommon, are usually caused by overheating from prolonged use, external damage or faulty components. These incidents, often isolated, are more likely to be a manufacturing or usage problem than a coordinated attack.

However, the Hezbollah pager explosions indicate a more complex scenario, potentially involving devices tampered with explosive material during manufacturing. According to a NYT report, Israel had hidden explosives inside a batch of pagers ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, although Gold Apollo has denied the media reports. A switch was reportedly fitted to detonate them remotely. If a similar tactic is applied to smartphones, it would require careful intervention in the supply chain or a method to trigger the explosions remotely, possibly via a coordinated radio signal or electronic pulse.

In theory, this concept could be applied to smartphones. Smartphones, due to their complex software and network connections, could present even more opportunities for remote manipulation, especially if a vulnerability in the device’s firmware could be exploited. However, it would be quite challenging to carry out such an attack on a large scale due to the wide and varied nature of smartphone brands, models, and software systems. The varied security protocols of modern smartphones add another layer of security that is difficult to break at scale.

In and of themselves, phones do not explode. Even if they are manipulated by hackers to increase the heat of the battery by modifying the current flowing in them, they are not going to explode en masse. There may be one or two isolated incidents. This is because the phone has a circuitry that starts working with safety measures when there is an excess supply of heat. For example, even in the heat of Delhi, if the iPhone starts heating up, the charging gets cut off automatically.

In addition, smartphones nowadays use sophisticated cooling chambers that ensure any built-up heat in the device is dissipated. Modern smartphones often use vapor chambers and graphite cooling systems that spread heat evenly across the device, using liquid that evaporates and condenses to dissipate heat, while the graphite layers help conduct heat away from critical components such as the processor.

That being said, even in a scenario where a smartphone is manipulated to heat up, chances are that in most cases, instead of exploding, the phone will melt to some extent, causing the battery to swell or leak, but they rarely explode. Even in instances where we read about someone’s phone exploding, you will notice that in an extreme scenario it may catch a small fire, but it does not explode.

What is a pager?

Pagers, which used to be a ubiquitous device in the 1990s before the rise of mobile phones, are basic devices that receive short messages via radio frequencies. Though largely obsolete, their hardware is still used by groups seeking a low-tech alternative to smartphones. Hezbollah’s unique use of pagers is driven by the group’s priority on security and anonymity. Unlike modern smartphones, pagers operate with simple technology, making them difficult to track.

The incident comes at a time when tensions are high in the region. Due to the ongoing war in Gaza, firing continues between Hezbollah and Israel on the Lebanon-Israel border.