Turning Everyday Gadgets into Bombs is a Bad Idea « bunnie's blog
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edit: after 20 comments, i’m adding a post description here, since most of the commenters so far appear not to be reading the article:

This is about how surprisingly cheap it is (eg $15,000) to buy a complete production line to be able to manufacture batteries with a layer of nearly-undetectable explosives inside of them, which can be triggered by off-the-shelf devices with only their firmware modified.

screenshot of paragraph from the article saying "The process to build such batteries is well understood and documented. Here is an excerpt from one vendor’s site promising to sell the equipment to build batteries in limited quantities (tens-to-hundreds per batch) for as little as $15,000:" followed by a screenshot of "Flow-chart of Pouch Cell Lab-scale Fabrication" showing a 20 step process

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    403·
    2 months ago

    Even though your edit clarified it, I wish we’d stop calling them “exploding batteries”. The battery isn’t the explosive, it’s the explosives that were hidden in the device. I’ve already encountered far too many morons describing conspiracies where the big bad government could make your iPhone explode.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    383·
    2 months ago

    It’s also a big ass war crime. And if you did it habitually as anyone other than the West you could expect a visit from the US military. Inside the West you’d likely end up in prison. Except Israel. Israel is just immune to everything because uhhh… Because… Well nobody actually has a good reason.

    • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      121·
      2 months ago

      Because people are scared to be seen as an anti-Semite if you are critical of a Jewish state and their wrongdoings.

      This is how Jeremy Corbyn got slammed as being an anti-Semite across the media and eventually kicked out of the labour party.

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    143·
    2 months ago

    We don’t see exploding batteries more because most militaries are better about securing their supply chain.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlEnglish
      72·
      2 months ago

      The attack hit many civilians. For militaires it might be feasible to secure their chain. For terror attacks, which this was, it would be far more difficult.

    • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
      711·
      2 months ago

      Really glad to hear the dead 8 year old girl was Khamas. I’m sure the dozen children that will be shot in the head today will be relieved once they find out they were Khamas as well and deserved to be shot in the head.

  • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    66·
    2 months ago

    Lithium burns intensely but it doesn’t explode. An electric car can burn for a long time, but they don’t explode. One of the comments says so

    I understand that what happened in Libanon was that dedicated explosives were added to the devices, it was not the batteries exploding. But that does not take away the conclusion of your story.

    It shouldn’t be undetectable. Throw a device from s series into a fire as a spot check and if it burns it’s ok, if it explodes give the entire series to your enemy’s kids to play with.