Russian authorities used Cellebrite's UFED phone-unlocking tool to hack into the iPhone of opposition politician Andrey Pivovarov in June 2021 — three months after Cellebrite publicly announced it had cut off all sales and services to Russia. Researchers at the Citizen Lab found forensic evidence on Pivovarov's phone confirming the breach, and a Russian court document explicitly detailed the use of Cellebrite UFED to extract WhatsApp and Telegram messages. The case highlights a fundamental problem with surveillance technology exports: once hardware is in a customer's hands, revoking licenses or cutting ties does not reliably prevent continued abuse. Researchers are calling on Cellebrite to implement remote-disable capabilities and cryptographically-signed watermarks to enable accountability and enforcement.
