Researchers and rights groups say Russian authorities used Cellebrite’s UFED phone-forensics tool to access devices belonging to activist Andrey Pivovarov, helping support his prosecution and imprisonment. Citizen Lab says a Russian forensic report documented UFED use about three months after Cellebrite said it had stopped sales and services to Russia in March 2021; Cellebrite disputes that any post-exit use was authorized and says any legacy tools there are obsolete.
Why it matters: This is a surveillance and privacy story with direct consequences for activists, journalists, and dissidents: commercial forensic tools can still be used by abusive states even after a vendor claims to have exited the market. It raises urgent due-diligence and export-control questions for vendors and governments, and warns at-risk users that seized devices may be mined with commercial extraction tools.
SecurityWeek News
2026.06.26
97% relevant
This source is another report on the same event, adding that local agency documents showed Russian investigators used legacy Cellebrite deployments after 2021 and alleging the extracted Telegram and WhatsApp data may have supported later phishing against the activist’s contacts.
2026.06.25
99% relevant
This article is a direct report on the same underlying event and adds details on timing, the specific devices involved, how Citizen Lab tied the USB Host ID to Cellebrite, and Cellebrite’s response that any post-March 2021 use in Russia was unauthorized legacy use.
Donna Wentworth
2026.06.25
100% relevant
This article establishes a distinct surveillance-abuse story centered on documented Russian use of Cellebrite UFED against a named activist after the vendor publicly said it had terminated contracts and services in Russia.
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