Israel’s Cellebrite probing Serbian use of phone hacking tool after Amnesty report

Israeli surveillance company Cellebrite DI Ltd says it is investigating allegations that its software was used by Serbian officials to hack into the phones of dozens of journalists and activists in order to install spyware on their devices.

In a report, Amnesty International alleges that Serbian spyware took covert screenshots of mobile devices, copied contacts and uploaded them to a government-controlled server.

“In multiple cases, activists and a journalist reported signs of suspicious activity on their mobile phones directly following interviews with Serbian police and security authorities,” Amnesty said.

Cellebrite products are widely used by law enforcement, including the FBI, to unlock smartphones and scour them for evidence. Cellebrite Chief Marketing Officer David Gee says the firm is investigating the Amnesty allegations.

“Should those accusations be accurate, that could potentially be in violation of our end user license agreement,” Gee tells Reuters. If that is the case, Gee says, Cellebrite could suspend the use of its technology by Serbian authorities.

Putting surveillance software on devices “is absolutely not what we do,” Gee says.

He adds that Cellebrite has begun contacting Serbian officials but declined to provide further details.