Russian Law Enforcement Agencies Acquire iPhone Hacking Software

Russian law enforcement agencies are purchasing software and equipment called UFED, developed by the Israeli company Cellebrite, designed to hack iPhones, including the latest models. This information was reported by the BBC Russian Service.

According to data published on the government procurement website, the Volgograd branch of the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR) paid the Israeli company 800,000 rubles for the delivery of a portable hardware complex, the UFED Touch2 Ultimate Ruggedized, for autonomous data extraction. Meanwhile, the Khabarovsk branch of the SKR spent 1.2 million rubles on services to upgrade the software for mobile device analysis from “UFED Touch” to “UFED Touch2 Ultimate.”

Law enforcement agencies do not purchase Cellebrite products directly, but rather through local partners such as “LAN-PROEKT” and “Forensic Technologies.”

The Israeli company’s equipment is also being purchased by Sberbank to protect devices running the Android operating system.

“If there is suspicion that mobile devices are infected with unknown malicious code, and after obtaining the mandatory consent of the owners of the infected phones, an analysis will be conducted to search for constantly emerging and evolving new viruses using various tools, including UFED Touch2,” Sberbank representatives explained.

Previously, the startup Grayshift, reportedly founded by U.S. intelligence contractors and a former Apple engineer, began distributing marketing materials describing a tool called GrayKey, which is also designed to unlock iPhones.