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Cellebrite

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Cellebrite DI Ltd.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: CLBT
Industry
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999), in Petah Tikva, Israel
Founders
  • Avi Yablonka
  • Yaron Baratz
  • Yuval Aflalo
Headquarters
Petah Tikva
Number of locations
14 (2021)
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Number of employees
1,000+ (2023)[1]
ParentSun Corporation
DivisionsMobilogy
Websitecellebrite.com

Cellebrite DI Ltd. is a digital intelligence company headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel, that provides tools for law enforcement agencies as well as enterprise companies and service providers to collect, review, analyze and manage digital data.[2] Their flagship product series is the Cellebrite UFED.

Cellebrite is a fully owned subsidiary of Sun Corporation based in Nagoya, Japan. The company has fourteen offices around the globe, including business centers in Washington, D.C., Munich, Germany, and Singapore.[3] In 2021, the company was valued at approximately $2.4 billion.[4]

History

[edit]

Cellebrite was established in Israel in 1999 by Avi Yablonka, Yaron Baratz, and Yuval Aflalo.[5]

Ron Serber joined Cellebrite in 2001 and Yossi Carmil joined in 2004. Since 2005 they both served as Co-CEO's until Ron Serber left the company in 2020. Carmil has since been the sole CEO.

Cellebrite first manufactured hardware and software that offered a compressive phone-to-phone data transfer devices, contact synchronization and content transfer tools for mobile phones, intended for use by wireless carrier sales and support staff in retail stores.

In 2007, Cellebrite established an independent mobile forensics division aimed at producing digital forensics and intelligence tools for use by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, military branches, corporate security and investigations, law firms, and private digital forensic examiners.[6][7] That year, Cellebrite was acquired by FutureDial Incorporated and one of its major shareholders, Sun Corporation in Japan.[8]

In 2017, Cellebrite's Mobile Lifecycle division was rebranded as Mobilogy, which produces hardware and software for phone-to-phone data transfer, backup, mobile applications electronic software distribution, and data analysis tools.[9]

In 2019, Israeli Growth Partners (IGP) invested $110 million in Cellebrite.[10]

In January 2020, Cellebrite announced the acquisition of US-based BlackBag Technologies, Inc., a forensics company with a focus on computer forensics. The acquisition allowed Cellebrite to expand its digital intelligence solution offerings to include data collection tools from computers.[11]

In April 2021, Cellebrite announced plans to go public via a merger with TWC Tech Holdings II Corporation, a blank-check firm. Once completed, Cellebrite would become a publicly listed company on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol, "CLBT"; the pro forma implied equity value of Cellebrite post-merger is expected to be approximately $2.4 billion.[12][13] In July 2021, a group of civil society organizations signed a letter arguing that the company should not be allowed to go public prior to demonstrating compliance with human rights.[14][15] In August 2021, Cellebrite announced the completion of the merger.[16] The Nasdaq ticker symbols were renamed to CLBT and CLBTW on the announcement day.[17]

In July 2024, Cellebrite announced that it was acquiring Cyber Technology Services,[18] a US-based cybersecurity company licensed to work on federal projects with maximum security clearance.[19]

Subsidiaries

[edit]
  • BlackBag Technologies, Inc.: US-based subsidiary[20]
  • Cellebrite Asia Pacific Pte Ltd: Singapore-based subsidiary
  • Cellebrite Federal Solutions: US-based subsidiary[19]
  • Cellebrite Global Training Headquarters: US-based subsidiary
  • Cellebrite GmbH:[21] Germany-based subsidiary - registered in October 2008[22]
  • Cellebrite UK Limited: UK-based subsidiary

Technology

[edit]

Cellebrite's products are classified as "dual-use civilian services," and not security-related, a distinction which it is argued allows them to operate without serious oversight from the Israeli government.[23]

In 2007, Cellebrite introduced the first version of their Universal Forensic Extraction Device (or UFED), a portable tool capable of extracting the contents of a cell phone, which became popular with law enforcement agencies around the world.[19]

In 2019, Cellebrite announced a new version of their flagship UFED product called UFED Premium. The company claimed that it can unlock iOS devices including those running iOS 12.3 and Android phones such as the Galaxy S9.[24]

In 2021, Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, pointed to a number of vulnerabilities in Cellebrite's UFED and Physical Analyzer software that allowed for arbitrary code execution on Windows computers running the software. One exploit he detailed involved the UFED scanning a specially formatted file which could then be used to execute arbitrary code on the computer running the UFED. Marlinspike wrote that the code could then "[modify] not just the Cellebrite report being created in that scan, but also "all previous and future generated Cellebrite reports" from all previously scanned devices and all future scanned devices in any arbitrary way."[25] Marlinspike also found that Cellebrite software was bundled with out-of-date FFmpeg DLL files from 2012, which lacked over 100 subsequent security updates. Windows Installer packages, extracted from the Windows installer for iTunes and signed by Apple, were also found, which he said raised legal concerns.[26] Cellebrite responded that the company "is committed to protecting the integrity of our customers' data, and we continually audit and update our software in order to equip our customers with the best digital intelligence solutions available."[27] The report by Signal followed an announcement by Cellebrite in 2020 that it had developed technology to crack encrypted messages in the Signal app, a claim the company later retracted and downplayed.[28][29] The announcement by Marlinspike raised questions about the integrity of data extracted by the software,[30][31] and prompted Cellebrite to patch some of the vulnerabilities found by Signal and to remove full support for analyzing iPhones.[32][33]

Law enforcement and government assistance

[edit]

Bangladesh

[edit]

The software has been sold to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Bangladesh. After a connection between Cellebrite and the extrajudicial killings of the RAB was reported in 2021, Cellebrite announced they would cease selling products to the organization. It is likely the RAB can continue to use the existing Cellebrite products they had already purchased.[23]

Belarus and Russia

[edit]

Cellebrite's UFED program was used to persecute the democratic opposition in Belarus and Russia; Vladimir Putin used the technology against his political opponents for many years.[34] In March 2021, after finding out that technology was used in the Lyubov Sobol affair, a Jerusalem activist filed a lawsuit against the company in the Israeli Supreme Court. The company announced the termination of cooperation with Russia and Belarus shortly afterwards.[35]

Botswana

[edit]

In May 2021, the Committee to Project Journalists reported that police in Botswana used a UFED device sold by Cellebrite to extract data from the phone of journalist Oratile Dikologang, the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People’s Daily News website, after a senior office ordered that his device be searched for information about "offensive" Facebook posts.[36]

Brazil

[edit]

In March 2021, the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State opened an investigation into the mysterious death of 4-year old Henry Borel.[37] The boy's stepfather Jairinho and his mother Monique Medeiros were arrested for obstructing the investigation into the boy's death and were being investigated for homicide. Rio de Janeiro police used Cellebrite devices to extract deleted WhatsApp messages between Jairinho, Medeiros, and Henry's nanny, which the department described as "essential technical evidence" for the case.[37][38]

European Union

[edit]

In 2019, Cellebrite advertised their products as an effective way to combat refugees in the European Union, stating that 77% of refugees arrived in Europe without documentation, though 43% had a smartphone.[39]

Hong Kong

[edit]

In August 2020, MIT Technology Review reported that Cellebrite sold its services to the Hong Kong Police Force for use in unlocking phones of detained demonstrators during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[40] As of October 7, 2020, the company announced that it would stop selling its solutions and services to customers in Hong Kong and China as a result of a change in U.S. regulations.[41] However, in 2021 The Intercept reported the software was still being sold to China.[42]

Myanmar

[edit]

In 2021, the New York Times reported that Myanmar's state budget included MacQuisition, a forensic software product made by Cellebrite subsidiary BlackBag Technologies that is used to extract data from Apple computers. Court document also showed that police in Myanmar reported using Cellebrite forensic technology to obtain data from the phones of two Reuters journalists, who were tried and convicted in 2018 for publishing evidence of a Rohingya massacre in Myanmar in 2017. A spokesperson for Cellebrite stated that Cellebrite stopped selling to Myanmar in 2018 and that BlackBag had not sold to Myanmar after being acquired by Cellebrite in 2020.[20]

Philippines

[edit]

The Philippines government under president Rodrigo Duterte was a purchaser of Cellebrite, and the company trained many of the country's government bodies, including some involved in the thousands of extrajudicial killings of the Philippine drug war. According to journalist Antony Loewenstein, Cellebrite cannot claim ignorance of its involvement in the killings.[43]

Saudi Arabia

[edit]

On 16 September 2020, Haaretz reported how Cellebrite had provided Saudi Arabia with mobile phone hacking services. The staff at Cellebrite demanded the Saudis to send a government representative to meet one of their employees at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Following the demand, a representative of Cellebrite traveled to Riyadh in November 2019 for a hacking attempt on a phone in the possession of a Saudi Justice Ministry employee. The Cellebrite representative called for the authorities to let him pass through passport control without getting his passport stamped or his electronic equipment being checked, while remaining only under his possession. The hacker was supposed to head to an isolated hotel room from the airport, where the process was planned to be executed without any electronic surveillance. The Cellebrite representative then returned to the Riyadh airport to fly back to London.[44]

Thailand

[edit]

In October 2018, the Freeland Foundation, a global non-profit organization that fights wildlife and human trafficking, was called in to assist a Thai Police investigation into two Vietnamese males suspected of wildlife trafficking. Freeland's forensics experts were dispatched to the scene to provide on-the-job training. Using Cellebrite devices, police discovered evidence the poaching coordinators had arrived in Thailand to sponsor targeted hunting in Thailand, Malaysia and possibly Myanmar.[45]

United Kingdom

[edit]

In November 2015, 15-year old Kayleigh Haywood from Measham, Leicestershire, was found dead. Leicestershire Police used a Cellebrite device to unlock Kayleigh's badly damaged smartphone, which led them to whom she had been talking and their whereabouts. This evidence uncovered Kayleigh's murderer Stephen Beardman and her groomer, Luke Harlow, and cleared a suspect who was nowhere near the scene of the crime at the time of her murder.[46]

In 2024, seven UK government agencies signed contracts with Cellebrite, including three police agencies, London’s city authority, and the UK Foreign Office, which collectively spent $370,000 on contracts for Cellebrite services.[19]

United States

[edit]

In April 2011, the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union questioned whether Michigan State Police (MSP) troopers were using Cellebrite UFEDs to conduct unlawful searches of citizens' cell phones.[47] Following its refusal to grant the ACLU of Michigan's 2008 Freedom of Information Act request unless the organization paid $544,000 to retrieve the reports, MSP issued a statement claiming that it honored the Fourth Amendment in searching mobile devices.[48]

In March 2016, it was reported that Cellebrite offered to unlock an iPhone involved in the FBI–Apple encryption dispute.[49] Later, after the FBI announced it had successfully accessed the iPhone thanks to a third party, a press report claimed Cellebrite had assisted with unlocking the device,[50] which an FBI source denied.[51]

In 2017, Cellebrite entered into a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for $2.2 million.[52] On June 24, 2019, another contract was signed with ICE for between $30 and $35 million. The 2019 contract was for "universal forensic extraction devices (UFED), accessories licenses, training and support services" for one year, with an option to extend for up to five years.[53][54]

In July 2024, the FBI gained access to the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man that tried to assassinate the former President Donald Trump, using unreleased technology from Cellebrite. After initial attempts with existing Cellebrite software failed due to the phone's advanced security, the FBI received new, still-in-development software from Cellebrite's federal team, which enabled them to unlock the phone within 40 minutes.[55]

Security breaches

[edit]
See also: Cellebrite UFED § Security

On 12 January 2017, it was reported that an unknown hacker had acquired 900 GB worth of confidential data from Cellebrite's external servers. The data dump includes alleged usernames and passwords for logging into Cellebrite databases connected to the company's my.cellebrite domain, and also contains what appear to be evidence files from seized mobile phones, and logs from Cellebrite devices.[56] The dumped data suggested Cellebrite sold its data extraction products to countries such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.[57]

References

[edit]
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