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Reading @pluralistic's take on battery bombs and security theatre here:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/06/shoenabombers/#paging-dick-cheney
I was struck by an idea ...
1. Supply chain attack on iPhones to install PETN battery bombs and malware
2. Malware on iPhone bombs tracks location and looks for barometric pressure reported by a Watch Ultra (they have an altimeter)
3. Phone set to explode when Watch visits an airport then altitude increases from surface level to over 2000 metres in under 5 minutes
Brrr!
It'd cost more than the Israeli pager attack on Hezbollah, and targets are more limited (need high end phone AND a fancy smart watch), but potential for a sudden multiple bombing of airliners with no prior notice and no reasonable way ot detecting it in advance is there.
@cstross : in one of my books, a short story is about a lonely engineer setting up, alone, multiple terrorists attacks to make the point that current security theater is making the world more dangerous.
The story is set in a realistic tone, with everything doable by a lonely engineer with of-the-shelves material.
Most of the reactions I had were: "You are crazy! What if you give the idea to true terrorists?"
Bruce Schneier said: our luck is that people wanting to kill other are extremely rare
@ploum Also, terrorists are generally angry and incompetent. Angry, or they'd seek to use other, more successful means of effecting social change: incompetent, or they'd be able to use other means effectively. It's not a career that selects for competence.
@cstross : which is wonderfully illustrated by the great movie "We are four lions".
There’s a line in it when one terrorist start to question some part of their plan and the chief answer: "don’t try to think! Your brain is the enemy of your faith" (or something similar)
@ploum @cstross take a look at the last three letters of their car registration next time you watch it https://www.oed.com/dictionary/twp_adj?tl=true
@cstross @ploum Yes. After 9/11 it was obvious that we were very vulnerable to attack. But Al Qaeda consumed many of their competent operatives in one go. Universal surveillance and policy changes together with the stupidity of terrorists helped.
But as the world disintegrates we may get much smarter terrorists.
@jgordon @cstross @ploum Of course, 9/11 led indirectly, to the great financial collapse by shifting a whole lot of FBI agents from investigating financial crimes to anti-terrorism. This enabled nearly unchecked expansion of fraudulent real estate appraisals, fueling fraudulent mortgage backed securities. And with (almost) no FBI agents on the cases, nobody got prosecuted. Compare and contrast the savings and loan crisis.