A new investigation reveals that Cellebrite sells its digital forensics tools to a Vietnamese ministry known for persecuting bloggers, journalists and

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2021-07-16 11:00:08

A new investigation reveals that Cellebrite sells its digital forensics tools to a Vietnamese ministry known for persecuting bloggers, journalists and religious and ethnic minorities

“Cellebrite’s solutions assist millions of investigations into the most serious crimes around the world every year,” the company’s CEO, Yossi Carmil, said recently in an interview with the business daily Globes. “Cellebrite’s tools are very powerful and give law enforcement agencies that protect our children the ability to do good for the world.”

In that same interview, Carmil said the company had developed contractual and technological mechanisms that are supposed to prevent its tools from falling into “the wrong hands.” But a new investigation by attorney Eitay Mack into one of Cellebrite's customers shows that once again, the company itself is the one who put its technology into the wrong hands.

The customer this time is Vietnam, or more accurately its Public Security Ministry (Bo Cong An), which is responsible for the police and internal security. In light of his discoveries, Mack and dozens of human rights activists have sent letters of protest to Cellebrite and Defense Ministry Director General Amir Eshel, who is directly responsible for monitoring the export of digital forensic technologies like the one being sold by Cellebrite.