India To Buy Cellebrite’s iPhone Hacking Technology

You might recall that earlier this year after a bit of back and forth between Apple and the US government, another company had to be brought into unlock the iPhone that Apple had refused to. The company in question is Israel-based company Cellebrite who was reportedly paid $1 million by the FBI to “hack” the iPhone to access the information on it.

Now it seems that Cellebrite has managed to get the attention of the Indian government who has reportedly struck a deal with the company to buy their technology. So what does the Indian government plan to do with the tech? Basically they plan to use the technology to help law enforcement agencies around the world unlock high-security devices, like the iPhone.

According to a senior Forensic Science Laboratory official, “We are likely to have the technology within a month or so. India will become a global hub for cases where law enforcement is unable to break into phones.” As 9to5Mac points out, it is unclear if the Indian government will be buying the exclusive rights to the technology, and how they plan to make it available to other governments.

That being said, Apple and other companies typically try to improve their security with every update, so it is unclear how effective Cellebrite’s technology will be in the next few years.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Hack, iPhone, Legal, Privacy, Security