Petr Škuta The defenders of the law had the appropriate equipment to break the protection of smartphones, including iPhones, as early as January 2018. The New York police and state authorities were thus among the first customers of Israeli hackers.
Security experts, hackers, from the Cellebrite group disclosed in June of this year that they have available a new tool to crack smartphone protections. Their UFED software is able to overcome all protections such as passwords, firmware blocking or encryption.
Although the company only disclosed the existence of the tool in June of this year, it was already providing it to customers much earlier. Among them were the NYPD and state agencies that purchased the Premium version of UFED.
Cellebrite describes its UFED solution as follows:
The only no-compromise solution for government and security agencies that can unlock and extract important data from iOS or Android devices.
Bypass or bypass all protections and gain access to the entire file system (including encryption) of any iOS device, or hack access to a high-end Android device to obtain much more data than standard means.
Access third-party application data such as chat conversations, downloaded emails and attachments, deleted files, and much more information that increases your chances of finding incriminating evidence to help solve your case.
New York paid $200 for using software to hack iPhones
However, OneZero magazine now claims to have obtained documents that confirm the collaboration between Cellebrite and Manhattan police and authorities. They could have been using UFED for 18 months before the software and solutions were revealed to the world.
The entire announcement caused an uproar throughout the hacking community. However, documents obtained by OneZero reveal that Cellebrite was selling the product long before the public announcement, and that the NYPD was a customer as early as 2018.
The contract describes the purchase of the UFED Premium product in January 2018. According to the document, authorities paid $200 to use the product for three years.
However, the total amount may be even higher. The software contains optional add-ons and extensions.
The $200 fee covers licensing, installation and training of select officers and agents, and a predetermined number of phone "hacks." The contract also includes a $000 million provision for unspecified software enhancements. However, it is not known if they were actually purchased.
The terms of use of the software then specify:
Authorities must use the software in a specially designated room, which must not be used for other purposes and must not contain any audio-visual or other recording devices.
Cellebrite declined to comment on the situation, saying it does not disclose information about its clients. It is not known whether the software can also handle the current version of the iOS 13 operating system.
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Source: 9to5Mac
