Hezbollah Device Hacking Exposes Dark Corners of Asian Supply Chains

TOKYO/SHANGHAI/TAIPEI –

The deadly hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for a way to get the devices, exposing a murky market for older technologies where buyers can have little certainty about what they are buying.

While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly controlled, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia, where counterfeiting, excess inventory and complex contract manufacturing arrangements can sometimes make it impossible to trace a product’s source, analysts and consultants say.

The response by companies at the centre of the booby-trapped bombings that killed 37 people and injured some 3,000 in Lebanon this week has highlighted the difficulties of establishing how and when they were used as weapons.