Exploding pagers and the tech race with China
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Let’s call it Operation Chutzpah. If, as is widely believed, the Mossad detonated pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists, killing dozens and wounding thousands, it will go down as an intelligence operation for the history books.
This strike is the latest in a string of daring operations from the tunnels beneath Gaza to the heart of Tehran. It also demonstrates how software has ushered in a new phase of warfare. Remember that Russian soldiers stole $5 million in John Deere equipment in 2022 from occupied Ukraine, only to discover that the internet-connected tractors could be remotely turned into scrap.
Months later, Tesla drivers at the Chinese resort of Beidaihe found their cars banned from the town during a Chinese Communist Party conclave. The party has since blocked Tesla at other sites, worried that the connected cars’ cameras pose a security risk. In January the FBIannounced that Volt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored group, had embedded malware inside America’s critical infrastructure such as “communications, energy, transportation, and water sectors." This malware could destroy the systems that keep our homes, businesses and hospitals running.
Look at the damage done by exploding pagers. Then imagine the chaos caused by haywire power grids, or the economic consequences of frozen ports. The Biden administration recently warned that Chinese-made port cranes could be “controlled .
. . from remote locations." European companies found that Chinese groups may have gained access to the systems that control cargo ships.
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