I wouldn't call that attack "easy". If someone wants to go through that much effort to kill me they can save themselves the work and stab me outside pizzahut on Saturday night
EVs. If terrorists could do this much damage with pagers, imagine cars. That's why the state wants to ban parts from the alt-empire. The terrorist attacks on Lebanon are a major wake up call for lots of people.
It's another example of how car dependency is a complete societal failure.
Open up the back of the device and check inside. If you see something that looks like a lump of modeling clay with wires sticking out of it crammed into the corner, your device has been compromised, and you should maybe try to remember whether you bought said device during a visit to Lebanon. After you put it in the middle of an empty driveway with a wall of sandbags around it and call the bomb squad, that is.
(Trying to associate literal exploding pagers with hacking borders on the surreal.)
The individual explosives were probably 15 or 20 grams of material that could be disguised as part of the case, components, or battery. Plastic explosives can be molded, painted, and wired to resemble almost anything.
IDK for sure, it could be as you describe, but I doubt it because the pagers were in place for months and many of them were likely disassembled/repaired in that time.
Children starving in Sierra Leone are a good reminder to order an extra large soda and side of spicy tater tots at Hardee's. Here's how to get $1.50 off your next combo order.