Hack of Hezbollah devices exposes dark corners of Asian supply chains

TOKYO/SHANGHAI/TAIPEI — The lethal hack of Hezbollah's Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices' path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers may have few assurances about what they are getting.

While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia, where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say.