Russia used Cellebrite to read detained activist's iPhone after sales ban

Colleagues — a cybersecurity alert: Citizen Lab found that Cellebrite UFED was used to read Andrey Pivovarov’s iPhone on 17 June 2021.

— Evidence: device artefacts and an official report naming UFED Physical Analyzer and UFED 4PC.
— Purpose: to search for opposition contacts; the device owner had no passcode.
— Context: Cellebrite halted sales to Russia in March 2021, but offline equipment remained operational.
— Recommendation: use a long alphanumeric passcode, enable Lockdown Mode, encrypt disks, power off devices when at risk; change all passwords after return.

Why it matters: sales bans don’t neutralize already deployed tools.

How do you protect devices in high-risk situations?

#cybersecurity #mobilesecurity #privacy