The Supply Chain Vulnerabilities of Weaponizing Daily Consumer Technologies Used In Middle-East Conflexts: A Case Study of Israel Pager And Walkie-Talkie Operation Attacks in Lebanon from Non-technical Prospective

Abstract

Supply chain attacks pose an increasing threat to communication device security, particularly in war zones with limited monitoring and wide attack surfaces. On September 17 and 18, 2024, thousands of civilian-used pagers and walkie-talkies detonated simultaneously, killing scores of users, wounding thousands more, and causing street chaos and dread. An undetermined number of these devices belonged to Hezbollah members in Lebanon. This strike established a new sort of distant warfare: the clandestine mass weaponization of seemingly harmless objects to achieve military goals. Pagers and walkie-talkies, among other battery-powered devices, have been widely utilized in both military and civilian situations. This article conducts an examination and broadens its scope to include the approaches and strategies used in the supply chain of such devices, as well as the supply chain vulnerabilities discovered.