Police raid offices of Tadiran Telecommunications Services

Several senior executives questioned on suspicion of hacking into Coral business switchboards.

By GAD PEREZ
Police investigators on Thursday raided the offices of Tadiran Telecommunications Services in Israel (2004) Ltd., a limited partnership wholly owned by Shlomo Shmeltzer-controlled Afcon Industries Ltd.
They seized computer equipment and apparently detained for questioning several senior executives on suspicion of hacking into Coral business switchboards.
The police opened the case in response to a complaint filed by a Coral switchboard maintenance- services company, which had begun winning many strategic customers away from Tadiran Telecommunications Services by offering prices up to 50 percent less than the service prices demanded by Tadiran.
The complainant developed an innovative product that operates as a firewall to protect Coral switchboard business customers from being hacking into. In recent months, the security system discovered repeated attempts to hack into Coral switchboards.
The security system completely protects the switchboards and documents every hacking attempt. The full documentation of the hacking attempts was handed over to the Israel Police.
Several months ago, there was a suspicious burglary at the home of the technical manager of the competitor of Tadiran Telecommunications Services, a person familiar with the matter said. A proprietary switchboard component was stolen during the burglary.
A complaint was filed with the police, who opened an investigation.
Tadiran Telecommunications Services is liable to lose its main asset – an exclusive distribution, maintenance, and services agreement for switchboards and products made by Tadiran Telecom Ltd. The agreement covers Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
A review of Afcon Industries’ financial report shows that the parties have the right to cancel the distribution agreement if Tadiran Telecommunications Services is involved in criminal activity related to the fulfillment of its obligations.