Last month, Cellebrite—the digital forensic company known for their ability to decrypt iPhones—acquired BlackBag Technologies, who provides the same forensic tools as Cellebrite, but for computers rather than phones. Recently, Forensic® spoke to Yossi Carmil, Co-CEO of Cellebrite, about what the acquisition means, what it offers for consumers in law enforcement and the future of mobile forensics.
Forensic®: What does the BlackBag Technologies acquisition give Cellebrite that the company did not previously have?
Carmil: The acquisition markedly expands and enhances Cellebrite's Digital Intelligence offering, empowering us to support our customers’ broad scope of digital investigation needs mainly in the area of data access, analytics and services. By acquiring BlackBag, we can now support computer forensic acquisition and analysis solutions. This adds a key building block to our solution portfolio.
The enhanced capabilities and services that we’re now able to offer are particularly relevant for private enterprises, corporate investigators and service providers as we can support computer forensic acquisition and analysis solutions in addition to existing mobile device and cloud data sources for e-discovery and digital investigations. Today, there are over 5 billion mobile devices and 1.5 billion computers being used across the globe. Our comprehensive all-in-one DI platform more realistically reflects the way digital investigations are conducted.
Forensic®: What is the main benefit to your customers?
Carmil: What our customers will likely find to be the biggest benefit will be the fact that they’ll now have a unified platform from Cellebrite—we are in a unique position as a trusted advisor and can provide a "one-stop-shop" offering to address the entire scope of their digital investigation needs. This means that we can provide a holistic approach to extracting, managing and leveraging digital data to generate a complete intelligence picture.
Our customers, law enforcement professionals and businesses alike, are facing mounting challenges in keeping pace with information being stored, hidden and encrypted by criminals. In a race to stay ahead of this element, there is a measurable correlation between timely investigations and the ability to lawfully solve crimes.
Forensic®: Specifically, how will law enforcement benefit from this acquisition?
Carmil: Today agencies are dealing with an overwhelming volume of data to sort through, causing massive backlogs and straining caseloads. Yet, hidden within this mountain of data is the difference between solving a crime and letting the guilty get away. The only way to manage this deluge is to leverage solutions that stay up to date with the ever-changing technology landscape and to ensure team members have access to training essential to getting the job done. These are the building blocks to creating a complete and objective picture of digital evidence allowing agencies to solve cases faster and to create safer communities. Adding BlackBag to our solution portfolio puts us in the unique position to help achieve these outcomes.
Most digital investigations involve both phones and laptops. We can now offer a solution that even more closely reflects the way investigations are conducted. This includes the industry’s most complete coverage of digital data collection tools and sources such as mobile devices, computers, cloud data and call data records and review capabilities to generate a complete intelligence picture. It also means we can partner with agencies to facilitate and help them orchestrate large-scale deployments as they upgrade their capabilities for digital data driven investigations.
Forensic®: Looking forward, where do you want Cellebrite to be in 2020 and beyond?
Carmil: Our primary goal is to strengthen our position as the undisputed leading business platform in the Digital Intelligence space. Having kicked off 2020 by adding these game-changing capabilities you can expect to see us continue to relentlessly pursue innovation. Having computer forensics as part of our overall product and solution set gives us the ability to become the single vendor to partner with to deliver a complete solution to our customers.
Non-organic growth, one of our main strategic building blocks will further accelerate our ability to provide tremendous value to our customers. BlackBag is a prime example of a strategic acquisition that helps us further realize our mission to deliver comprehensive solutions that aid not only law enforcement, but enterprises as well. You can expect to see additional M&A activity that will help extend our reach into adjacent markets as a unified solutions provider of best-in-class digital investigative tools that have become critical to enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of investigations.
Forensic®: The FBI recently said they were having trouble accessing two iPhones used by the shooter at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in December 2019. If the agency was to come to Cellebrite for help, is that something your company could provide assistance with?
Carmil: Each case is unique, but we are proud of our ability to help public safety organizations who need advanced tools to access and identify the evidence hidden in our digital world. Many, if not most government entities, law enforcement agencies and investigative organizations rely on us to help combat crime and terrorism around the globe. However, we do not comment on specific cases.
Forensic®: One of the iPhones in the Pensacola case was an older model iPhone 5. But what about the latest software versions on iPhone X’s? Is Cellebrite software able to get through that encryption?
Carmil: We generally don’t discuss our practices and methods because it can only help criminals. But, we are constantly evolving and developing the most advanced resources for our customers. We are a solutions business, involving a large and dynamic set of products, in-house and on-site services and training. It’s not about a phone, it’s about aiding the entire investigation workflow.