“We will not be a big firm however we’re a accountable one. That is very embarrassing,” is how Hsu Ching-kuang, founder and president of Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, whose pagers exploded and injured about 4,000 Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon and Syria yesterday, killing a number of of them, responded this morning, when Taiwanese police raided the corporate’s premises. Talking to Reuters, Hsu denied that his small firm, which employs simply 40 individuals in New Taipei, had produced the units concerned within the assault. He stated that they have been produced by a European firm referred to as BAC, which was licensed to make use of Gold Apollo’s model. “The product was not ours. It was solely that it had our model on it,” Hsu instructed reporters, in accordance with Reuters. Gold Apollo’s web site was taken down shortly after Hsu issued his denial.
Hezbollah has held Israel liable for yesterday’s explosions, and says that it is response “will come from an surprising path.”
Gold Apollo was based in 1995, within the heyday of pagers, as a provider of units that displayed numbers solely, such because the variety of the caller or a numeric code. It went on to provide intercoms, radio transmitters, LED screens, and alpha-numeric pagers such because the AR-924 mannequin, which was the gadget in yesterday’s assault. Earlier than it was eliminated, Gold Apollo’s web site boasted that the corporate’s units have been utilized by hospitals, eating places, and emergency groups everywhere in the world. The corporate’s Wikipedia entry states that it distributes its merchandise primarily in Europe, East Asia, the US, and plenty of nations within the Center East, amongst them Israel, Lebanon, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. The corporate is privately held, and in accordance with the Tradewheel web site, its annual income doesn’t exceed $10 million.
The Hezbollah terrorist group purchased 1000’s of pagers so as to keep away from utilizing newer and extra hackable technique of communication that would betray the consumer’s location, and so as to cross encrypted messages. The messages may be intercepted, however finding customers who obtain messages solely is taken into account unimaginable. Hezbollah sought a safe communication channel, however now its vulnerability has turn into clear.
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on September 18, 2024.
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