The weaponization of everything has begun

The attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies (and possibly even solar panels) in Lebanon is one of those events that many have speculated was on the horizon: the weaponization of everyday objects in 21st-century conflicts.

But there were probably those who thought this “weaponization of everything”– as security analyst Mark Galeotti puts it – was the stuff of Hollywood movies or cyberpunk crime thrillers.

Transforming pagers or phones into explosive devices, in their view, was probably not possible both in technological or logistical terms. It was the type of scenario that only the most paranoid would think could actually become a reality.

Yet it has now happened. And it has claimed the lives of 37 people, injured thousands more, and has created the possibility of catastrophic organizational disruption.

The ability to communicate across your army or terrorist network has always been fundamental to warfare. And the ability to communicate – and to communicate quickly – is even more important as the geographical scale of war expands.

An organization needs to be able to trust that its tools of communication are reliable. And it needs to trust that the people they are talking to are real and not fake (or the products of AI – an increasing fear in times of “deep fakes”).

Members of an organization also need to find ways to ensure that they are not being listened to – a constant fear in times when the tools of communication are constantly evolving in their power and complexity.

So, any organization in the 21st century has to be paranoid about the threats of digital disruption and the different ways information and communication can be stolen, monitored and corrupted, or manipulated.

But turning the everyday tools of communication