Lessons beyond Lebanon

Why the attack must set alarm bells ringing for us

- Gautam S Mengle

Several explosions occurred in pagers carried by adults and children in Lebanon on Tuesday; this was followed by explosions, of an almost equal intensity, Scurred in pagers carried in walkie-talkies held by members of the Hezbollah. Those in the field quickly connected it to Israel's Mossad, and for good reason. They also concluded that a large-scale cyber attack was underway.

But before we come to that, it is important to take an objective look at the facts that have come to light so far. The following has been pieced together by this writer using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), including continuous updates on dark web forums by contributors based in both Lebanon and Israel, who choose to remain anonymous, but the depth of their information speaks for itself.

The pagers that exploded were AR-924 models manufactured by a Hungarian firm, BAC Consulting KFT, and sold under a Taiwanese brand name, Apollo Gold.