Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues its work with Cellebrite
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is continuing its work with the digital forensics firm Cellebrite, federal spending and procurement records show. The company provides government agents the ability to extract information from phones, even if they’re password protected.
ICE has been buying software and hardware designed by the Israel-based firm for many years, with the agency spending increasingly more on the company’s services. On Thursday, ICE said in a procurement opportunity announcement that, yet again, it was looking to buy Cellebrite technology, though the agency revealed little beyond that.
The interest from ICE comes as Cellebrite continues to focus on the federal marketplace. Last year, the company announced that it was looking to “unlock more opportunity” with the U.S. government, which already constituted a significant share of its sales. As part of that work, executives restructured the firm and established a new U.S.-based parent company called Cellebrite Federal Services.
Earlier this year, Cellebrite said the Justice Department would sponsor its authorization under FedRAMP, a critical federal cloud security program. The company’s technology is still being reviewed, but once approved, it will be even easier for Cellebrite to sell its systems to federal agencies.
In late August, ICE also disclosed a different procurement update related to Cellebrite services for C3, the component’s cyber crime investigative unit. Procurement documents stated that the agency required “the capability to perform logical, file system, physical, and password data extraction for mobile electronic devices,” and that there were “no other mobile forensic product suites that offer equivalent capabilities, deployability, or usability.”
Other Department of Homeland Security components have also used Cellebrite systems, including the Secret Service and Customs and Border Protection. On Friday, CBP released a similar announcement regarding its interest in buying Cellebrite technology.
Though the agency’s website says it doesn’t “read or copy” information from devices, it appears that the Transportation Security Administration has also purchased Cellebrite technology. DHS hasn’t responded to multiple FedScoop inquiries about the agency’s uses of Cellebrite technology.
Other agencies that have used the tool include the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
