Israel's walkie-talkie bombs opened a Pandora's box, says hardware genius Bunnie Huang: "if we do not universally and swiftly condemn the practice of turning everyday gadgets into bombs, we risk legitimizing a military technology that can literally bring the front line of every conflict into your pocket, purse or home."
https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/turning-everyday-gadgets-into-bombs-is-a-bad-idea/
@dangillmor I mean, just for starters, this practice is against the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the targeting of civilian populations by indiscriminate weapons in wartime.
Israel might as well have strewn landmines all over Beirut. Same thing.
@tsturm @dangillmor More pointedly, there is a direct prohibition on boobytrapped non-weapons.
@dangillmor and they are much cheaper than cluster bombs which we already make and supply. It’s only terrorism if it’s done to us.
@dangillmor
9/24/24 “The U.S. will send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs” https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/09/24/us-to-send-375-million-in-military-aid-to-ukraine/
But we definitely don’t support the random killing or maiming of civilians!
@dangillmor You don't need to be a hardware genius to work this out. The complete failure of the US (and Little Australia) to condemn this action is opening up an extraordinary chapter in military technology - another one - which can and will, at some point, no doubt, be used against the US citizens themselves, quite possibly. by Israel, if the US doesn't toe the Zionist line.
"We became victims of our own crime."
SearingTruth
Wow, well that's pretty horrifying.
"I am left with the terrifying realization that not only is it feasible, it’s relatively easy for any modestly-funded entity to implement. Not just our allies can do this – a wide cast of adversaries have this capability in their reach, from nation-states to cartels and gangs, to shady copycat battery factories just looking for a big payday (if chemical suppliers can moonlight in illicit drugs, what stops battery factories from dealing in bespoke munitions?)"
I wonder if we'll see another unabomber for instance.
@dangillmor
Condemning is all very well but Israel has long been immune to that.
@dangillmor modern electronics are already black boxes that are controlled by outsiders. Adding explosives is low brow terrorism. This should motivate many to seek out more systems that are open source, non-proprietary. #FOSS #privacy #righttorepair take back ownership and control of the things you purchase.
@rhymerepartee @dangillmor +9001%
It's not enough to have "reference #Xray images" but being able.to completely disassemble and repair stuff should be the norm if not mandatory per law...
@dangillmor it’s way more effective then bullets or bombs. The collateral damage is easier to minimize if you can use these kind of weapons
@dangillmor great, now TSA needs to check every cellphone, tablet, computer, camera ECT, for explosives.
Thank you so very much for making everyone less safe ......
@dangillmor
As Bunnie alludes to, you don't even have to do this at scale to be devastatingly effective:
In the 1982 Tylenol poisonings there were 7 victims (3 from the same tainted bottle), & while it's not clear how many bottles were tampered with, the number was likely small. But it resulted in the recall of ALL Tylenol nationwide, & 100's of copycats in the following months.
If 5 Instant Pots are tampered with, so they explode, would the brand ever recover? Doubtful.
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@dangillmor
A couple of ATMs / cash machines with a skimmer that explodes rather than steals your PIN? We'd become a cashless society overnight.
The movies have already overused the robotaxi as assassination device. There, it's typically made to look like an accident, but what if it is made deliberate instead, with the taxi announcing its intent before crashing or driving off a bridge?
Look what happened to air travel when Boeing were just being greedy pricks…
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@dangillmor
Wait this sounds like Bunny gave them the idea back in 2019... he literally wrote this in the post:
_"...For example: this talk which I gave in Israel in 2019 at the BlueHat event, outlining the numerous attack surfaces and porosity of modern hardware supply chains. ..."_