An electronics firm linked to pagers thought to have been used to target Hezbollah was the victim of a cyber hack last year, i has learned.
The Taiwanese business at the centre of a probe into the devices experienced a cyber hack which exposed the internal workings of the company, according to intelligence briefed to i.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been accused of planting explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations that killed twelve people.
Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese manufacturer of pagers identified in the hack said it did not make this specific batch, pointing instead to a Hungarian company called BAC which they gave their brand trademark to. BAC, which has denied making the exploding pagers, has one listed employee and no mention of manufacturing capabilities on its website.
i can now reveal that Gold Apollo was previously compromised by an international cyber criminal operation in the middle of last year, which stole information about the firm’s activities, its internal work and exposed secret data on who it was trading with.
The hack compromised staff devices at the firm which had direct factory access. Anyone looking at that information would have access to the internal workings of the factories, potentially including information on shipments. This would have then been potentially available to anyone willing to pay for it, i has learned.
Hezbollah leaders moved their communications to pagers last year after realising that their mobile phone communications had been compromised. Using pagers made it near impossible for Israel’s spy agency The Mossad to intercept communications or geo-locate Hezbollah militias through their devices, but it created an opportunity to modify the devices before they were delivered.
The hack on Gold Apollo, a UK intelligence source told i, could have provided a swathe of useful information about the firm’s inner workings potentially exposing Hezbollah’s supply chain. This would have potentially enabled anyone looking to target Hezbollah to identify weak points in the supply chain.
There is no suggestion Gold Apollo knew that pagers it made or licensed were intended for use by Hezbollah.
It is believed that the attack may have been an attempt to sow distrust for devices and equipment provided by Iran – Hezbollah’s state backer. But the incident also exposes key details about the international firms providing Hezbollah with key equipment, either knowingly or unknowingly.
UK intelligence officials believe with “high confidence” that the pagers were procured and supplied to Hezbollah by Iran, i has been told.
Lebanon’s health minister said that 12 people have lost their lives, including two children. Thousands of people were injured in the attack, including Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s Ambassador to Labanon – further fueling theories that the pagers were provided by Iran.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
In a statement Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the model of the pager, an AP-924, which wirelessly receives text messages but cannot make telephone calls.
“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters at the company’s offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday.
A sister company of Gold Apollo based in Hong Kong states to hold the “sole distribution rights” of all Gold Apollo pagers, i can reveal.
Apollo Systems Ltd website claims the firm was set up to respond to the “growing market of pager communication 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 devices carried by Hezbollah members and others, exploded simultaneously in multiple locations on what has come to be known as “cursed Tuesday”.
Shipments of medical aid have begun arriving in Lebanon, including from Iraq and a medical delegation from Iran’s Red Crescent. Convoys including doctors, nurses, and citizens with rare blood types have departed from Tripoli towards Beirut to support residents of the southern suburbs, the South, and the Beqaa Valley.
Among the 12 fatalities across Lebanon, 10-year-old Fatima Jaafar Abdullah is so far the youngest victim. The number injured remained at 2,750, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Wednesday. Around 200 people are estimated to be in a critical condition.
This incident comes after Israeli military warnings that tensions would shift from Gaza to Lebanon’s northern front.