Report: Russia Used Cellebrite Tools to Hack Dissident's iPhone

Russian authorities allegedly extracted data from the iPhone of human rights activist Andrey Pivovarov using Cellebrite forensic tools, months after the Israeli company said it had stopped operating in Russia. A new investigation by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found “traces of the use of Cellebrite's forensic tools with high confidence” on Pivovarov’s iPhone 12 while it was in state custody.

Researchers said the intrusion occurred on or around June 17, 2021, when the phone was seized and physically held by Russian authorities. Pivovarov, the former head of the nonprofit Open Russia, said the devices were taken without his consent and that he never provided the passwords to his iPhone or MacBook. His devices were returned to his lawyers only in 2023, while he was serving a prison sentence, two years after the original seizure.

Citizen Lab said the findings are fully backed by official Russian law enforcement documents. A forensic expert report, No. 1269-17, explicitly confirms use of Cellebrite’s UFED Physical Analyzer and UFED 4PC tools, which are designed to extract and analyze data from mobile devices. Russian investigators used them to access WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber, and to collect information later used as evidence in Pivovarov’s prosecution.

The Russian file also shows targeted searches for political terms such as “Open Russia Civic Movement” and names of prominent opposition figures, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The report says authorities had far less success with Pivovarov’s encrypted MacBook, logging a series of failed login attempts on the same day the iPhone was breached. Cellebrite, based in Petah Tikva with major offices in the United States, said in March 2021 it ended its contract with Russia’s Investigative Committee, and its marketing chief David Gee said any use after that date was “completely unauthorized” and without company support. Citizen Lab accused the company of failing in its corporate responsibility to protect human rights.