Russia uses Cellebrite to break into human rights activist’s phone, even after cancellation of contract

Citizen Lab analyzed the phone of Russian activist Andrey Pivovarov and court records, concluding that Russian authorities accessed his device in mid-2021 using Cellebrite’s UFED forensic tools despite the company having canceled its contract; the report warns legacy Cellebrite systems and offline modes made it difficult to fully block misuse and that data from the compromise may have facilitated subsequent targeting of other dissidents.