Israeli firm behind tech that reportedly cracked Trump shooter’s phone wants more fed business

Cellebrite, the Israeli firm that made software reportedly used by the FBI to break into the phone of the man who shot former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, has picked up a growing amount of work with U.S. agencies over the past decade, federal contract records show. 

According to Washington Post reporting, the FBI used Cellebrite software to break into the device of Thomas Matthew Crooks at the bureau’s lab in Quantico, Va. That followed an initial stop at the nearby Pittsburgh office in which attempts crack Crooks’ newer Samsung model were unsuccessful, according to Bloomberg, noting that the Cellebrite software was “unreleased.”

Less than a week later, Cellebrite announced that it had purchased Cyber Technology Services Inc. and that it was establishing Cellebrite Federal Solutions. Cellebrite Federal Solutions will function as a parent company to Cellebrite with proxy status, the digital firm told FedScoop in an interview Wednesday.

The move is intended to boost the company’s U.S. operations, Cellebrite CEO Yossi Carmil said, helping the firm engage with more departments and divisions within the federal government. Carmil said that Cellebrite is close to announcing a federal agency sponsorship for a FedRAMP cloud accreditation, which would allow the company to offer more cloud — rather than on-premise — services. He anticipated an announcement in 2025. 

Federal customers currently constitute roughly 20% of Cellebrite’s annual recurring revenue in the public sector, according to a press release from the company. Barry West, a former CIO at several government agencies, is also joining a new board of directors involved in the company.

Carmil, meanwhile, said there was no connection between the reports that Cellebrite software had been used by the FBI to unlock the shooter’s device and Wednesday’s announcement, calling the timing a “coincidence.” 

“That agency is one of those agencies who has — on a permanent basis —  a significant amount of Cellebrite licenses in order to operate [on] a regular basis,” Carmil said. “There is a routine here and the conclusion is that there is no need for any event in order to operate with our softwares, which are sitting there … on [a] permanent basis.”

Before the acquisition, Cyber Technology Services was contracted for work with the federal government, according to federal contracts records.

Cellebrite already has a range of contracts with federal agencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had several contracts with the company, including for forensic equipment and licenses. The Secret Service has also purchased technology from the company, as has the Defense Department. Other agencies that appear to have purchased technology from Cellebrite include the State Department and the Department of the Interior.  

Requests for comment sent to many of these agencies were not answered by publication time. 

Cellebrite has faced myriad criticisms for its approach. TechCrunch reported last year that the company encourages law enforcement to stay mum about the software in training videos, citing concerns over the release of their techniques. On Wednesday, the technology journalism outlet 404 Media reported on documents that appeared to show phones on which the software does and does not work. (Cellebrite responded to both those publications with statements). 

Jake Wiener, an attorney at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, expressed concern about Cellebrite. He argued that the firm has an unethical business model and takes advantage of cybersecurity flaws in phones. 

“When law enforcement agencies contract for access to phone hacking technology, they create tremendous risks of abuse, wrongful surveillance, and mass surveillance,” Wiener said. “Federal agencies should not be endorsing or contracting for Cellebrite’s services at all. If Cellebrite is getting more federal contracts, your taxpayer dollars are increasingly funding an unethical and harmful business.”

Those concerns echo what privacy and technology scholars have told other outlets. Cellebrite disputed criticisms of its business model and referred FedScoop to its ethics and integrity page.

The FBI declined to comment and the Department of Justice did not respond to a series of questions by publication time. 

Apple did not respond to repeated requests about whether the shooter’s device was an iPhone or if it assisted in the investigation. Apple famously refused to help the FBI break into the phones belonging to the individuals behind the San Bernardino mass shooting in 2016. The FBI eventually turned to an Australian company called Azimuth Security to get into the phone. 

This story was updated July 19, 2024, with a response from Cellebrite and additional reporting from Bloomberg.