U.S. Government's Multi-Million Dollar Mobile Forensics Shopping Spree Revealed

Forbes ^ | April 6, 2016 | By Steve Morgan

[Swordmaker]

The FBI, DOJ, and numerous other U.S. government agencies have acquired mobile forensics and smart phone hacking tools from Cellebrite — an Israeli based cybersecurity firm — for the past decade.

Cellebrite manufactures the UFED Touch, a mobile forensic extraction device which the FBI used to hack into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c.

CNN Money reported last week the FBI alone signed 187 contracts with Cellebrite over the past seven years — averaging $10,883 per contract — according to U.S. government records. That’s more than $2 million the FBI dropped on mobile forensics products and services.

The Federal Procurement Data System–Next Generation (FPDS-NG) reports on U.S. government agency purchases. A search on government spending with Cellebrite returns an eye-popping 1,511 purchase orders or other award types as of today. The Cellebrite buyers are a who’s who of federal agencies. A partial list includes:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• DEA, Department of Energy
• Department of State
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency
• DISA
• DoD
• DOE
• DOJ
• EPA
• FBI
• FDA
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
• Federal Prison System
• Forest Service
• FTC
• IRS
• NASA
• NIST
• Office of Inspector General
• Patent and Trademark Office
• Securities and Exchange Commision
• U.S. Air Force
• U.S. Army
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
• U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
• USDA
• U.S. Marshals Service
• U.S. Navy
• U.S. Secret Service
• USSOCOMM
• VA
• Washington Headquarters Services

[Swordmaker]

"Cellebrite manufactures the UFED Touch, a mobile forensic extraction device which the FBI used to hack into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c."

It is highly unlikely that the FBI, or even Cellebrite, utilized Cellebrite's UFED Touch to unlock the iPhone 5C used by the San Bernardino Terrorists. The Cellebrite YouTube instructional videos show pretty clearly that the device only works with iPhones that pre-date iOS 8 (the last one shows a fleeting image of an iPhone 4S) and a following YouTube from July 2015 demonstrates how to use a NEW adaptor cable with the UFED Touch to unlock an iPhone 5 which also required the use of a special Cellebrite camera to monitor the iPhone 5's screen as it tried multiple iterations of the four digit passcode by brute force, until the screen changed, showing it had successfully unlocked it. That video specified the iPhone had to be running iOS 7 or lower. The San Bernardino iPhone was running iOS 9.1.

[Doogle]

Guess the only people missing from that list was Bug Bird and Oscar the Crouch

[thoughtomator]

Anyone else got a problem with the US government hiring foreigners to break the most important product of one of the largest US companies because it could not lawfully do so otherwise?

[Swordmaker]

The list of Federal agencies who have bought the forensic cell phone unlocking tools from the Israeli company, Cellebrite, that is thought to have unlocked the San Bernardino Terrorist's iPhone, reads like a Federal Registry of all agencies. One has to ask what the some of the need such unlocking abilities for? What, for example, does the Veterans Administration need with the ability to unlock cell phones? How about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? The Forest Service? Inquiring Minds would really like to know. — PING!

Apple V. the FBI and every other
Alphabet Agency in the US Government?
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[gaijin]

Some people say the NSA is on a technical level a junior partner to the smaller Unit 8200, the Israeli NSA.

[semimojo]

One has to ask what the some of the need such unlocking abilities for?

An employee dies or is uncooperative after firing?

[Aliska]

You’re getting very warm.

[MarchonDC09122009]

Absolutely!
And that’s what decent constitutionally minded representatives should be asking and holding hearings on.
Sadly, we have gotten the authoritarian government we are willing to put up with.
Apathy’s a costly b1tch.

RE: “Anyone else got a problem with the US government hiring foreigners to break the most important product of one of the largest US companies because it could not lawfully do so otherwise?”

[MarchonDC09122009]

Bingo

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/20/from-the-8200-to-silicon-valley/

Infosec’s chosen people..

RE: “Some people say the NSA is on a technical level a junior partner to the smaller Unit 8200, the Israeli NSA.”