Hacker Reveals Phone-Hacking Company Cellebrite Sales to Kremlin

Cellebrite, the controversial Israeli manufacturer of mobile-phone forensics tools used to circumvent device passwords and track text messages, has been hacked—and 900 GB of its fdata has been released to Vice’s Motherboard, the online publication said Thursday. The stolen data reportedly includes databases, technical specifications concerning Cellebrite’s products, as well as its highly guarded customer information. According to Motherboard report, the stolen data indicates the technology has been sold to authoritarian governments in Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, all known for records of human-rights abuses. Cellebrite is also known to be popular with U.S. federal and state law-enforcement agencies. In a statement, Cellebrite advised customers to change their passwords as a precaution and noted that it would be pursuing an investigation into the hack. According to Motherboard, the hacker “expressed disdain for recent changes in surveillance legislation,” stating that “had it not been for the recent stance taken by Western governments, no one would have known but us.”