Sensitive FBI, Interpol Info Leaked from ‘Israeli’ Firm Cellebrite - Documents Show

By Staff, Haaretz

Sensitive and confidential information relating to intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies across the globe, including the FBI and Interpol, have been leaked from ‘Israeli’ firm Cellebrite, according to court documents published by Haaretz.

The information is from 2015-2017 and includes almost half a million emails belonging to senior officials and directors at Cellebrite, their internal communications and exchanges with clients, invoices and even contracts.

The company is known for its digital intelligence tools and phone-hacking technology.

The information was transferred from Cellebrite to the Japanese Sun Corporation [the main shareholder in Cellebrite] and then handed over to Japanese officials – all without the knowledge or consent of Cellebrite’s ‘Israeli’ management or its then-clients.

Cellebrite says the documents and this report do not accurately portray the events, which it says had no effect on the company or its operations.

Just the news of the disclosure of Cellebrite’s clients’ information to unauthorized parties in a foreign country could pose a problem for the firm, whose deals with intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies often come with a secrecy clause that allows clients to renege on agreements if they are breached.

Furthermore, it is illegal in some countries to publish information that could reveal the tactics of intelligence or defense bodies. It is unclear if this is the case, and if this is the type of information that eventually reached Japanese officials [who were investigating alleged financial misconduct by Sun officials in Japan].

Though Sun is the majority stakeholder in Cellebrite and is in theory privy to all its internal data, the information was passed onto Sun without the knowledge of Cellebrite’s secrecy-sensitive management and clients. Some of it was even passed onto workers within Sun, per the documents.

Moreover, upon learning that it and its clients’ information had reached Sun and was then handed over to Japanese authorities, Cellebrite commissioned law firms to write a legal opinion to try to assess the damage of the leak.

Some of the data was disclosed to Sun and the Japanese authorities by a Cellebrite official called Eli Yakuel. According to the court documents, he served as the “shadow director” on behalf of the Japanese ownership within the ‘Israeli’ firm.

Other parts of the data eventually handed over to Japanese authorities were transferred from Cellebrite by senior Sun officials who were privy to the information due to their corporate ownership role. According to the documents, some of the information that reached senior Sun officials was also transferred to employees within the Japanese firm as well.