A story today that might make you feel eight-percent better about Cellebrite, maybe. I told you earlier this week about what a friend Cellebrite has in the U.S. government. According to the Israeli phone-busting company’s own filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, over 2,800 of its customers hold positions in the U.S. Org Chart. That’s the power to snoop on iPhones and Android phones all up and down the ladder, from 14 of the 15 U.S. cabinets, all the way down to the local PoPo.
Here’s the good news: A piece from 9 to 5 Mac says Cellebrite’s current hardware is not quite as powerful as it used to be. The site says it’s learned that Cellebrite hardware sold to customers cannot unlock an iPhone. Of course, if authorities have someone against a wall (figuratively or literally) and force that someone to unlock the phone for them, 9 to 5 Mac says Cellebrite’s hardware “can still perform full data extraction from unlocked iPhones.”
Cellebrite can still break into locked iPhones, by the way. According to the report:
[Cellebrite’s] business was significantly disrupted last year when secure messaging service Signal managed to get its hands on the company’s kit. [Signal] managed to crack the software and work out how to place a file on an iPhone that would prevent data-extraction.
So now, it seems, Cellebrite’s keeping its most valuable know-how in house. “If you want to unlock an iPhone,” says 9 to 5 Mac:
…you have to send it to the company, paying a fee of $4k per device. The company calls this Cellebrite Advanced Services, or CAS. While the company’s website implies that CAS is limited to law enforcement agencies, we’re told that private sector customers can also use it.
See? Don’t you feel eight-percent better, maybe?
