EXPLAINED | Cyberattack on Hezbollah: Pagers explode, kill nine in Lebanon

In 2004, General S. Padmanabhan, former Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, envisioned a future where wars would be fought not just with soldiers and tanks, but with invisible weapons: cyber systems built into everyday devices.

What once seemed speculative has become a chilling reality in Lebanon. A series of explosions involving Hezbollah communications equipment are suspected to be the result of a sophisticated cyberattack.

The explosions, which killed at least nine and wounded more than 2,800, exposed a new frontier in modern warfare: cyberspace. Hezbollah’s trusted pager network, thought secure and reliable, was suddenly compromised and turned into a series of bombs, targeting those who carried them.

According to a Hezbollah official, the casualty count continues to rise as the group reels from the unexpected attack. Just days earlier, Hezbollah had received a new shipment of pagers, devices the group believed were less vulnerable to hacking than modern smartphones.

A person is carried on a stretcher outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center after the explosions. Beirut, Lebanon, September 17, 2024. | Photo credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR

Hezbollah-affiliated journalist Hosein Mortada tried to control the situation by urging the public not to share images or videos of the wounded. However, the scale of the incident quickly overwhelmed all efforts, with graphic images of the casualties flooding social media.

In recent months, Hezbollah has lost more than 450 fighters in its ongoing conflict with Israel. While the group has historically demonstrated resilience, this cyberattack exposes dangerous vulnerabilities that could be exploited in future conflicts. Hezbollah’s once secure communications system, essential for coordinating attacks and mobilizing fighters, has become its new weakness. The potential to manipulate and weaponize seemingly mundane systems like communications networks is redefining the rules of conflict. Future wars could now be fought with data, algorithms, and cyberexploits.

Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group with deep ties to Iran, had long relied on its outdated but secure pager communications system to protect sensitive information from modern hacking techniques. However, this perceived security was shattered when these devices, once used to coordinate military operations, became weapons of destruction. Hundreds of pagers carried by Hezbollah fighters were remotely hacked, causing them to overheat and explode, resulting in tragic losses of life and operational security.

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The explosions, concentrated in Hezbollah strongholds such as the southern suburbs of Beirut, sent shockwaves through the group. Among the victims were a 10-year-old girl and the son of a Hezbollah member of parliament, illustrating the profound impact on the community. Hospitals in Beirut were overwhelmed by the influx of victims, with desperate appeals for blood donations.

Speaking with Frontline Speaking from Beirut, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad confirmed the devastating death toll, adding that Iranian Ambassador Mojtaba Amani was also among the wounded.

Experts agree that this attack marks a pivotal moment in the way war is fought in the 21st century. Cyberattacks are often invisible, leaving no trace, no mess, no smoking gun. They target vital systems — communications networks, power grids, financial institutions — and bring entire nations to their knees without a single conventional weapon being used.

People donate blood for those injured by their explosions, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 17, 2024. | Photo: MOHAMMAD ZAATARI

While no group has officially claimed responsibility, Lebanese security officials and Hezbollah insiders suspect Israeli involvement, further intensifying the proxy war between Hezbollah and Israel. Just a day earlier, Israel added the safe return of its citizens to their homes near the Lebanese border to its formal war goal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he outlined the war’s objectives at a late-night security cabinet meeting. Iran-backed Hezbollah had opened a second front against Israel, a day after the war in the Gaza Strip began with an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “The Security Cabinet has updated the war’s objectives and they now include the following: To return the residents of the north safely to their homes. Israel will continue to implement this objective,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from towns and villages on both sides of the border by near-daily gun battles between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

That’s why experts say the cyberattack, which comes just a day after the Israeli statement, has clear Israeli traces. The global implications of such attacks are profound. Military strategies must now consider cyberspace as a major battlefield, where attacks can disrupt societies, economies and critical infrastructure without firing a shot. From Russia’s suspected cyberattacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure to allegations of Russian hackers targeting U.S. defense contractors, the stakes for cyberwarfare have never been higher.

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Pagers, originally developed in the 1940s, were seen as a secure and reliable means of communication, particularly for professionals such as doctors and emergency responders. The message is clear: no system, no matter how outdated or seemingly secure, is immune to cyber manipulation.

The implications for global security are daunting. As technology becomes more integrated into daily life, the potential for cyberattacks to cripple essential services grows exponentially. Power grids, transportation networks, and communications systems are all vulnerable targets in future conflicts.

Sanjay Jha, a professor at the University of New South Wales Institute for Cyber ​​​​Security, warns that cyber warfare is no longer a future threat but a present reality. “By attacking a critical piece of infrastructure, you can cripple large parts of an economy,” Jha explains. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, for example, in which hackers flood systems with junk data, can easily take out critical networks. The case of Hezbollah shows that the digital battlefield is here, and the weapons are often invisible.

The shift in warfare from land and sea to cyberspace is having a major impact on militaries around the world. Analysts say Hezbollah, once seen as disciplined and invulnerable, has been exposed, showing that even the most secure organizations are at risk in the digital age. As cyberattacks become more frequent, the lesson for militaries is clear: In future warfare, the enemy may be everywhere, the weapons invisible, but the damage will be all too real.

Iftikhar Gilani is an Indian journalist based in Ankara.