Company linked to exploding Hezbollah pagers was hacked last year

An electronics company linked to pagers believed to have been used in attacks on Hezbollah was the victim of a cyber hack last year. I has learned.

The Taiwanese company at the centre of an investigation into the devices was the victim of a cyber hack that exposed the company’s internal operations, according to intelligence information obtained by I.

The Israeli secret service Mossad is accused of having equipped 5,000 pagers imported from the Lebanese Hezbollah with explosives several months before the detonations on Tuesday, in which 12 people were killed.

Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the pagers identified in the hack, said it did not manufacture that particular batch, but instead referred to a Hungarian company called BAC to which it had given its trademark rights. BAC, which denies manufacturing the exploding pagers, has listed one employee and makes no mention of manufacturing capabilities on its website.

I can now reveal that Gold Apollo was already the subject of an international cybercrime operation in the middle of last year that stole information about the company's activities and internal workings and revealed secret data about the company's trading partners.

The hack compromised the devices of the company's employees who had direct access to the factory. Anyone who could see this information had access to the factories' internal operations, possibly including information about deliveries, which could then potentially be accessible to anyone willing to pay for it. I has learned.

Hezbollah leaders switched to pagers for communications last year after realizing that their cellphone communications had been compromised. The use of pagers made it nearly impossible for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency to intercept communications or locate Hezbollah militias through their devices, but provided the opportunity to modify the devices before they were delivered.

The hack on Gold Apollo, a British intelligence source said Icould have provided a wealth of useful information about the company's internal operations and potentially exposed Hezbollah's supply chain. This would have allowed anyone wanting to target Hezbollah to identify vulnerabilities in the supply chain.

There is no indication that Gold Apollo knew that the pagers it manufactured or licensed were intended for Hezbollah use.

The attack is believed to have been an attempt to sow distrust of equipment supplied by Iran, Hezbollah's state sponsor. However, the incident also reveals important details about the international companies that knowingly or unknowingly supply Hezbollah with critical equipment.

British intelligence officials believe “with great certainty” that the pagers were procured by Iran and supplied to Hezbollah. I was told.

Lebanon's health minister said 12 people were killed, including two children. Thousands of people were injured in the attack, including Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon – further fueling the theory that the pagers were supplied by Iran.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has announced retaliatory measures against Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment on the explosions.

In a statement, Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the AP-924 pager model, which receives text messages wirelessly but cannot make phone calls.

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“The product was not our product. It just bore our brand,” Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters at the company's headquarters in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday.

A sister company of Gold Apollo based in Hong Kong claims to have “sole distribution rights” for all Gold Apollo pagers. I can betray.

Apollo Systems Ltd's website states that the company was formed to respond to the “growing market for pager communications systems around the world” from its sales office in Taiwan and logistics facilities in Hong Kong.

Apollo Systems did not respond to a request for comment.

The explosive devices, carried by Hezbollah members and others, exploded simultaneously in several locations on that day, which became known as “Cursed Tuesday.”

Medical aid shipments have now arrived in Lebanon, including from Iraq and a medical delegation from the Iranian Red Crescent. Convoys carrying doctors, nurses and citizens with rare blood types have left Tripoli for Beirut to support residents of the southern suburbs, the south and the Bekaa Valley.

Ten-year-old Fatima Jaafar Abdullah is the youngest victim so far among the 12 fatalities across Lebanon. The number of injured remained at 2,750, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday. An estimated 200 people are in critical condition.

The incident came after the Israeli military warned that tensions were shifting from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon's northern front.