Georgian government buys Israeli software to decrypt data from phones and computers

Georgia’s Interior Ministry is to purchase software from Israeli digital intelligence firm Cellebrite to extract, decrypt, and analyse data from phones and computers. The purchase was preceded by a warning from the company that, for unspecified reasons, Georgia could soon be blocked from buying further equipment.

According to the National Procurement Agency’s website, the purchase, approved by the Georgian government, is valued at ₾6.8 million ($2.4 million).

The software is intended for use by the Interior Ministry’s Computer and Digital Technology Expertise Laboratory, which, according to the ministry, ‘handles expert analyses assigned by investigative bodies within the framework of criminal cases’.

The Interior Ministry has already collaborated with the Israeli company in the past. This most recent procurement is expected to cover a three-year period.

The ministry said the software will give them ‘enhanced capabilities for faster data extraction and processing’, noting that the company had improved its production.

One of the pieces of software intended to be purchased is Inseyets, which the company boasts ‘provides unparalleled access to the latest Android and iOS devices’, enabling ‘full file system extractions of even encrypted content’.

Cellebrite described the other software, called Digital Collector, as ‘a powerful forensic imaging software solution to perform triage, live data acquisition and targeted data collection for Windows and Mac computers’.

The Procurement Agency’s website stated that the purchase would be conducted as soon as possible. Explaining the reasons, the ministry mentioned a letter from Cellebrite warning the ministry about potential future issues.

The letter emphasised that ‘from the entire Caucasus region of the former USSR, Georgia is the only country where the company sells its solutions’. However, the letter expressed concern that, for the first time, Georgia ‘could be blocked’ from purchasing the company’s equipment, with the potential issue arising ‘at any time this year’.

‘Therefore, I would like to advise you that if you are planning a purchase this year, please try to make it as early as possible’, the letter read.

The letter did not specify the cause of the potential issue. OC Media has reached out to the ministry’s press office regarding this matter, but no response has been received yet.

According to the company's website, Cellebrite, founded in 1999, is a global leader in digital forensics, helping public and private organisations to ‘to transform how data is managed in investigations to protect and save lives, accelerate justice and ensure data privacy’.

The company’s products have been widely used by law enforcement agencies in numerous countries, but have attracted controversy for their use to help violate civil rights and repress independent media and activists.

In a recent case, the company suspended the use of its digital forensic equipment for certain customers in Serbia after Amnesty International reported in December the misuse of its tools by the local authorities to illegally target activists and journalists.

Cellebrite said in an official statement that its software solutions support ‘forensically sound, lawfully sanctioned investigations and are not spyware, surveillance or any other type of offensive cyber activity’.

Earlier, in 2021, the company announced that it was halting the sale of its digital intelligence offerings in Russia and Belarus. According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, this decision followed an appeal by dozens of human rights activists against Israel’s Defence Export Control Agency, the Defence Ministry, and Cellebrite. At the time, documents revealed links between Cellebrite’s technology and the persecution of political activists and minority groups in Russia, according to the publication.

In 2020, the company made a similar decision regarding the use of its products in Hong Kong and China, but an investigation by the US  publication The Intercept in the same year said that police on the mainland continued to buy the company’s products, which allowed officers to break into phones in their possession and siphon off data.

There have been growing concerns in Georgia regarding the use of technologies by the state to identify and punish its critics. One such concern relates to the fact that police actively use facial recognition cameras to identify demonstrators.

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OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia