Cellebrite Tools Used by Russia to Hack Political Activist's Phone Despite Contract Cancellation

Russian authorities used Cellebrite's forensic tools in June 2021 to access and extract personal messages and contacts from political activist Andrey Pivovarov's iPhone while he was in custody, despite Cellebrite announcing in March 2021 it would stop sales to Russia. The extracted data was reportedly used to build a criminal case against Pivovarov, raising questions about the effectiveness of export controls, corporate responsibility, and oversight of surveillance technology.