When we have to fear even a lowly pager

We are scared of a global scale attack that could take down all the computers and severely affect everyday life, destroying long-term business. We are scared of our smartphones being taken over by nefarious purposes. The Israeli Pegasus spyware has been a big revelation targeting the high and mighty.
We are scared of a global hack of ICBMs which could trigger a widescale war. There are many things to be scared of nowadays. But the humble low-tech pager? Who would have thought! Pagers were developed in the 1950s. They became popular in the 1980s and came to India in the 1990s. But couldn’t really take off due to the mobile which was introduced side by side. We probably see most of the pagers in hospital soaps and not in real life. This was one device that was definitely not “hot” in the new millennium.
But who would have thought that such a relatively outdated device could be even more lethal than a high-tech smartphone in the enemy’s hands. I am of course referring the Israel’s pager attack which destroyed the Hezbollah leadership in a matter of days. Hezbollah was formed way back in 1985 and hit Israel severely during the 2006 Lebanon war. It seemed very difficult for the Israelis to handle them. However, the pager attack, which saw thousands of injuries, seems to have set it back by decades. More than that, the entire narrative has shifted from Palestine to the pager. Israel’s enemies have been reduced to memes. Israel already was a tech-intelligence-security giant and now every country will look to emulate them, including bad state actors like North Korea.
The question is: Next is what? With sensors and IoTs proliferating and every electronic appliance becoming smart, even your toaster may be used against you in the future. A smart car and a smart home connected to a smart city sounds great and convenient but totally open to attack.
Now add a chip to the brain and the smart human can be hacked too. Is there any way out of it? Not really. Sooner or later, everything will be smart. If you resist, you will be left totally behind. Staying off the grid will become even more and more cumbersome going forward. It will not be everyone’s cup of tea.
The human race has no choice but to go with the technology, go with the safeguards and pray for the best. Even if there is no outright war in the future, virtual attacks may increase and get more sophisticated. The computer virus of the 1980s seems quite harmless compared to the potential unfolding today.