JERUSALEM: The Israeli cyber tech company Cellebrite has supplied devices to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and various police units that are very intrusive and may result in serious human rights violations despite the fact that the two countries not having diplomatic ties and Israeli norms prohibiting such deals, according to a report in Haaretz.
Cellebrite’s flagship product, UFED, which is sold to law enforcement agencies around the world, hacks into password-protected mobile phones and copies all their stored information, including text messages, contacts, pictures and documents.
The report found that Cellebrite’s Singapore-based Asia Pacific subsidiary sold products directly to Pakistani authorities until at least 2019, according to international shipment records.
The report adds that evidence from operating manuals and invitations for tender show that police units and the FIA frequently use Cellebrite’s flagship mobile-hacking spyware.
In 2020, the export of forensic equipment such as that produced by Cellebrite came under the Defence Ministry’s oversight, since it was included in the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, which defines which dual-use (security use and civilian use) products require oversight, the report noted.
