When Nadim Kobeissi was a child growing up in Beirut in the early 2000s, sonic booms created by the Israel Defense Forces' planes in the skies above Lebanon would occasionally rattle his home, generating enough noise and concussive force that he and his family would sometimes sleep in the hallways to avoid pieces of glass from shattered windows falling onto them in the night. The psychological effect'which he believes was intentional'was long-lasting. Even years later, after he'd left Lebanon, the sound of fireworks would make him start subconsciously sweating and shaking. This week, the booms rippling across Lebanon came not from Israeli jets streaking across the sky, but from electronic devices exploding in people's pockets and hands. Yet Kobeissi, now a security researcher based in Paris, says the lingering fear following the attack is familiar: When he speaks to his family members who are still in Lebanon, they tell him that their iPhones have been heating up, and ask whether...
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