Hong Kong protests: did police use Israel’s Cellebrite hacking tech to crack protesters’ smartphones?
- Former Hong Kong police detective says the force has used the company’s data-extraction technology for about seven years
- Disclosure may explain how investigators got around smartphone security features to gather evidence against protesters
Frances Chu, who spent more than three decades in the force and is now a computer forensics consultant, said she believed the force had bought data-extraction devices from Cellebrite to unlock smartphones like those police seized from anti-government protesters.
Chu, who retired from the force in 2013, said Hong Kong police had been using Cellebrite technology for about seven years and that she knew of at least two sellers of its products in the city, including the Hong Kong cybersecurity company Binary Solutions, where she formerly worked as a consultant. Binary Solutions, which is based in Wan Chai, lists Hong Kong Police Force and Cellebrite among its clients and partners on its website.
“The Hong Kong police have used Cellebrite in their investigations for quite a long time,” said Chu, who runs CFA Consulting. “It’s not a new thing.”
Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu this month told a meeting of the Legislative Council that police had seized 3,721 mobile phones from arrested protesters and suspects between June and November last year and broken into them to read their contents.
He said the devices were subjected to “digital forensic examination” after obtaining court warrants but did not respond to lawmakers’ questions on whether police had used spyware to hack the phones, insisting the “critical technologies” involved must remain secret.
