Analysts and consultants said that despite the management Supply chains Distribution channels for new, more sophisticated products are tightly controlled, but not for older electronics from Asia, where counterfeiting, excess inventories and the complex nature of contract manufacturing deals sometimes make it impossible to determine the source of a product.
The reactions of companies linked to the explosive devices that killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 others in Lebanon last week highlighted the difficulty of determining how and when they were converted into weapons.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo blamed a company in Europe It holds a license to use its trademark, prompting Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway and Romania to conduct investigations into the origins of these devices.
Japanese company Icom initially said it could not determine whether the walkie-talkies bearing its name were genuine because the market was full of counterfeit products.
But she issued a statement on Friday saying it was highly likely that it would not be. Wireless devices Which exploded in Lebanon from its products.
The ICOM website quoted Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm as saying that the devices were not imported through a distributor and that counterfeit products with the same model number are imported from other countries.
The Japanese company said that examining the devices that exploded would be necessary to ensure that they were not produced by it, but “in light of the various information that has been revealed, the chances are very low that these devices are our products.”
The resident technology expert and consultant said, China David Fincher: “If the supply chain was compromised to put explosives inside the devices… that’s an amazing plan. But the current supply chain is not difficult to compromise, and it’s probably the easiest thing to do.”
He added that counterfeit products are widespread, especially in major manufacturing centers such as China, where counterfeit components can be easily produced, adding that the transition from counterfeit components to supply chain penetration is easy.
A security source said that Hezbollah obtained the devices about five months ago and that it was believed to have purchased them from Gold Apollo.
Photos of the device after it exploded showed that the laptops had stickers bearing the name Icom and the words “Made in Japan.”
The two companies ruled out the possibility that any of the deadly components were manufactured in either of their factories on the territory of the two countries.
Counterfeit products
But at the moment, there is no certain information other than that, it is not clear how or when the pagers and walkie-talkies were booby-trapped so that they could be detonated remotely.
Part of the problem is that smaller brands tend not to invest heavily in monitoring, said Joe Simon, a partner at Chinese intellectual property services firm East IP. Counterfeit ProductsThis is due to reasons including costs that may affect its profitability.
“The authorities are fine with low-tech counterfeit products, but IP owners need to monitor, investigate and file complaints, and this doesn’t always happen as much as it might with larger, high-tech brands,” he added.
For Icom, it says one problem is that it stopped making the IC-V82 in question about 10 years ago, around the time it started using holographic labels to protect against counterfeiting.
The company has repeatedly warned against counterfeit products, especially of its older models.
According to the latest available report from the Japan Patent Office, more than 7 percent of companies in Japan reported business losses due to counterfeit products in 2020, with about a third of the cases linked to China.
Icom urged customers to use only its network of authorized distributors to ensure they are purchasing genuine products.
But in China, a Reuters investigation found that dozens of stores were selling walkie-talkies branded as ICOM Commercial on e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba, Taobao, JD, and Pinduoduo, including the IC-V82 model.
