Lebanon explosions raise alarm about supply tech chain security

Translated by Alessandra Fumagalli 

Lebanon explosions, which caused at least 32 deaths, raised alarms about the supply tech chain security. The attacks, linked with Israel operations against Hezbollah, involved the use of tons of devices as pagers and walkietalkies, raising worries about the security of daily devices and the vulnerability of the production and distribution chains. 

After some research, the Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, since the exploded pager came from Taiwan, stated not to have any trace of direct exports of devices in Lebanon, affirming that the devices could have been modified after the production. The New York Times and Reuters’s press agency, citing some anonymous officials, have indeed claimed that the Israel authorities had put small quantities of explosive in the pagers before it was detonated. 

About the walkietalkies, detonated some days after, everything still remains unclear. It was an out-of-production model, made in the Japanese factories ICOM, which didn’t undergo any controls by Hezbollah security services. The society stated that that model was out of production for ten years and it wasn’t able to understand whether the devices were counterfain or came directly from its buildings. 

Beyond some problems in Hezbollah security systems, which raise suspicions that this attack was already planned, another worry spreaded about each electronic device. This attack has indeed highlighted how each device, which seems apparently  harmless, can become a weapon through manipulations during the process of manufacturing and distribution, in each part of the Earth, and in each conflict. 

Technological factories' consequences

Tech factories should increase their efforts in order to guarantee the supply chain security and reduce manipulation’s risks. According to Milad Haghani, supply chain expert at the University of New South Wales, what happened in Lebanon is an unprecedented event, which could stir the companies to reinforce their security policies in the production processes. Apple, Samsung and Huawei are considered less vulnerable, thanks to their already high security standards and their better ability to control their supply chain. 

Taiwan case

Since Taiwan’s distance towards the Middle East conflict, the country and Gold Apollo, pager production’s society, are not involved in the attack: Taiwan has any diplomatic relations with Israel, which, like most countries, doesn’t recognise Taipei, but they both have some relations with the United States. However, the event attracted the attention on the country and its famous technologic industry. 

Taiwan has indeed one of the main technological industries in the world, which is protected by American strong interests and Chinese competitors, producing the main part of semiconductors, which are used in the most part of electronic devices in the world. 

This technological industry highlighted the effect of this attack, which has not only involved the tech supply chain, but in particular one of the most important in the whole world. For this reason, some discussions have been raised, even after the negation of any society’s direct responsibility in the attack. Gold Apollo affirmed that the exploded devices were produced by another company, BAC, located in Budapest, raising concerns about potential infiltrations in the supply chain. 

Taiwan, which also hosts one of the most important technological companies in the world, like TSMC, is now obliged to think about its role in the global dynamics. “This event will represent big and critical lessons for the industry”, affirmed Yachi Chiang, Technologies’ law professor at the National Taiwan Ocean University.

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