In 2004, General S. Padmanabhan, former 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 embedded in everyday devices.
What once seemed speculative has become a chilling reality in Lebanon, where a series of explosions involving Hezbollah’s communication devices are suspected to have been triggered by a sophisticated cyber attack.
The explosions, which left at least nine dead and over 2,800 injured, have exposed a new frontier in modern warfare: cyberspace. Hezbollah’s trusted pager network, thought to be secure and reliable, was suddenly compromised and turned into a series of bombs, targeting those carrying them.
According to a Hezbollah official, the number of casualties continues to rise as the group reels from this unexpected assault. Only days before, 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 American University of Beirut Medical Center after the explosions. Beirut, Lebanon, September 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
MOHAMED AZAKIR
Hezbollah-affiliated journalist Hosein Mortada attempted to control the situation, urging the public not to share images or videos of the wounded. Yet, the scale of the incident quickly overwhelmed any such efforts, with graphic images of the casualties flooding social media.
In recent months, Hezbollah has already lost over 450 fighters in its ongoing conflicts with Israel. Though the group has historically shown resilience, this cyber attack reveals dangerous vulnerabilities that could be exploited in future conflicts. Hezbollah’s once-secure communication system, essential for coordinating attacks and mobilising fighters, has become its new weakness. The potential to manipulate and weaponise seemingly mundane systems, such as communication networks, is redefining the rules of conflict. Future wars could now be fought with data, algorithms, and cyber exploits.
Hezbollah, a Shia militant group with strong ties to Iran, had long relied on its outdated yet secure pager communication system to shield sensitive information from modern hacking techniques. However, this perceived security was shattered when these very 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 deep community impact. Hospitals in Beirut were overwhelmed by the influx of casualties, with desperate calls for blood donations..
Speaking to Frontline from Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad confirmed the devastating toll. Iranian ambassador Mojtaba Amani is also reportedly among the injured.
Experts agree this attack marks a pivotal moment in how warfare is conducted in the 21st century. Cyber attacks are often invisible, leaving no trace, no debris, and no smoking gun. They target essential systems—communication networks, power grids, financial institutions—bringing entire nations to their knees without a single conventional weapon being deployed.
People donate blood for those who were injured by their explosions, at a Red Cross centre, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
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 border with Lebanon to its formal war goal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he laid out the war aim in an overnight 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 October 7, 2023. “The Security Cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes. Israel will continue to act 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 exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Therefore, experts say, the cyber attack coming just a day after the Israeli statement has telltale Israeli imprints. The global implications of such attacks are profound. Military strategies must now account for cyberspace as a key battleground, where attacks can disrupt societies, economies, and critical infrastructure without firing a shot. From Russia’s suspected cyber attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure to accusations of Russian hackers targeting US defence contractors, the stakes of cyber warfare are higher than ever.
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Pagers, originally developed in the 1940s, were seen as secure and reliable for communication, particularly for professionals like doctors and emergency workers. The message is clear: no system, no matter how outdated or seemingly secure, is immune to cyber manipulation.
The consequences for global security are daunting. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, the potential for cyber attacks to cripple essential services grows exponentially. Power grids, transportation networks, and communication systems are all vulnerable targets in future conflicts.
Sanjay Jha, 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 paralyse large parts of an economy,” Jha explained. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, for instance, where hackers flood systems with junk data, can easily incapacitate essential networks. Hezbollah’s case shows that the digital battlefield is here, and the weapons are often unseen.
The shift in warfare, from land and sea to cyberspace, has profound implications for military forces around the world. Analysts say, Hezbollah once seen as disciplined and invulnerable, has been laid bare, demonstrating that even the most secure organisations are at risk in the digital age. As cyber attacks become more frequent, for military organisations, the lesson is clear: in future warfare, the enemy could be anywhere, the weapons invisible, but the damage will be all too real.
Iftikhar Gilani is an Indian journalist based in Ankara.
