So there's the answer: the radios and batteries were discontinued in 2014, Hezbollah tried to keep using them, the batteries gradually died, so they began buying cheap third-party batteries made by someone unspecified … which gave the Israeli sigint people the perfect way to put bombs in them.
It's not just your electronics supply chain you need to secure; it's all the consumables.
https://mastodon.social/@thejapantimes/113163561903337024
@cstross What if special X-ray machine that doesn't see the spicy battery? https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/113163482246576806
@m @cstross @GossiTheDog So there’s an equivalent of the EURion Constellation, only for explosives planted by The Good Guys?
Probably time to buy some Chinese X-ray machines and run them in series with the Western ones
I'm confused what it would do upon detection: it would have to substitute something in place of the real imagery. What would that thing be and how would it keep it consistent for (a) various rotations (b) various objects placed behind the object being imaged?
I could imagine this being easier to pull of with CT, but Vidisco (based on a single glance on their website) seems to sell imaging devices that have a single emitter and a single 2d sensor.
@acb @robryk @m @GossiTheDog That is indeed the question. Those X-ray belt displays use false colour to highlight items that need human eyeballs (X-rays themselves don't come in pretty colours!) so there's some signal processing code at work in there ...
@cstross @acb @robryk @GossiTheDog Could be even simpler - if special RFID tag scanned, display message to operator: "Traveller engaged in national security operation. Do not interfere."
@m @cstross @robryk @GossiTheDog that’s assuming that the officers are trustworthy and don’t gossip. Keeping them out of the loop altogether would be more secure
@m @acb @robryk @GossiTheDog RFID tag … or a QR code made out of lead inside the battery case that tells the X-ray machine "I am not a bomb".
@cstross @m @robryk @GossiTheDog I wonder whether a search of 3D QR-style codes filed in Israel would yield any intriguing results
@cstross @acb @robryk @GossiTheDog Some light reading while we wait for the infodump... https://www.wired.com/2014/08/study-shows-how-easily-weapons-can-be-smuggled-past-tsas-x-ray-body-scanners/
@robryk @m @cstross @GossiTheDog Could it change the colour/consistency reported, transforming a block of C4 into what could be a phone battery/bag of ground coffee/other innocuous object?