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

    • breadsmasher@lemmy.worldEnglish
      325·
      9 hours ago

      Did you read it?

      The article literally talks about inserting an explosive layer inside the battery at production. Just like the comment said.

      It isn’t “any batteries can explode”.

      Reports indicate the explosive payload in the cells is made of PETN.

      Such a sheet could be inserted into the battery fold-and-stack process, after the first fold is made (or, with some effort, perhaps PETN could be incorporated into the spacer polymer itself – but let’s assume for now it’s just a drop-in sheet, which is easy to execute and likely effective)

      • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        523·
        9 hours ago

        Just to be clear, the pager thing wasn’t exploding batteries, they had apparently been modified at the production level to have explosives in them, which could be triggered by the pager system itself.

        What? 🤦 The comment I replied to said:

        Just to be clear, the pager thing wasn’t exploding batteries, they had apparently been modified at the production level to have explosives in them, which could be triggered by the pager system itself.

        It seems clear that “they had apparently been modified at the production level” is referring to the pagers, rather than their batteries. But the article is explaining how it could have been that the batteries were the part of the pager that had the explosives (in which case it was the battery that was exploding).

        • breadsmasher@lemmy.worldEnglish
          232·
          8 hours ago

          You are inferring what someone meant, and then applying some super pedantic reasoning.

          When manufacturing pagers, that includes the pager electronics, the case, and the battery.

          Wasn’t exploding batteries

          The batteries themselves unmodified, standard batteries were not somehow hacked to explode. At some point in the manufacturing of the pagers which includes the battery, explosives were included.

          • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
            421·
            8 hours ago

            You are inferring what someone meant, and then applying some super pedantic reasoning.

            I think I am inferring correctly, especially since the person you’re talking about replied “of course not” to my question about if they read the article.

              • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
                414·
                8 hours ago

                i encourage you to re-read the original comment in this thread after reading the article 😂

                  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
                    35·
                    7 hours ago

                    (@Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee:) Just to be clear, the pager thing wasn’t exploding batteries, they had apparently been modified at the production level to have explosives in them, which could be triggered by the pager system itself.

                    (me:) Did you read the article? It sounds like you didn’t.

                    (you:) The article literally talks about inserting an explosive layer inside the battery at production. Just like the comment said.

                    I am really curious: can you tell me, do you actually think the first commenter in fact read the article and was agreeing with its suggestion that the batteries could have been manufactured with explosives inside of them?

                    (you): It isn’t “any batteries can explode”.

                    Nobody claimed that, but in retrospect I guess I can see how, read alone, the pull quote I selected from the article to be the title of this post could be interpreted that way.

                • nick@midwest.socialEnglish
                  33·
                  6 hours ago

                  Delete this entire post or shut up, bro. You’re being nuked with downvotes.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeEnglish
      81·
      9 hours ago

      Most other people wont be reading it either so I don’t see an issue with pointing out the obvious misconception people could make based on the headline that talks about exploding batteries.

      • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        28·
        8 hours ago

        Of course not, what did you expect?

        I encourage you to, it’s pretty interesting.