Tech
Cellebrite’s new device was used in the FBI’s assassination investigation.
The FBI used Cellebrite’s new device in its assassination investigation. This technology is considered a revolutionary step in uncovering important evidence and bringing criminals to justice.
The Role of Cellebrite in the FBI’s Assassination Investigation
According to information from Bloomberg and The Washington Post, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used a yet-to-be-released device from the well-known mobile forensics company Cellebrite to unlock the phone of an attacker who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. This process resulted in the phone being unlocked in less than an hour.
Detectives in the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office initially tried to unlock the phone of the assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks using Cellebrite’s tool, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Some individuals familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg that the phone was sent to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, on Sunday, where agents contacted Cellebrite’s federal expert team.
Cellebrite sent the FBI a new device that was still in development and managed to unlock Crooks’s phone in just 40 minutes. The FBI’s quick success rate is seen as an indication of significant advancements in mobile device forensics tools (MDFTs) in recent years. However, the researchers’ failure to unlock the phone using tools available in the current market highlights how quickly advancements in operating systems can render these tools ineffective.
It was learned that Crooks was using a new Samsung phone with the Android operating system. Internal Cellebrite documents obtained by 404 Media show that the Cellebrite devices currently on the market cannot unlock many smartphones running iOS 17.4 or later, along with the discontinued Google Pixel 6, 7, and 8 models.
According to various reports in the media, the FBI stated in a briefing meeting with members of Congress on Wednesday that Crooks was also investigating the dates when former President Donald Trump would appear in public, as well as the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Additionally, it was reported that Crooks targeted prominent figures such as FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.