U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regulation enforcement arm Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) has signed a contract value $3 million with Magnet Forensics, an organization that makes a phone-hacking and unlocking machine known as Graykey.
The contract, which appeared on Tuesday in a federal authorities procurement database, mentioned it’s for software program licenses for the phone-hacking tech for HSI “to get well digital proof, course of a number of gadgets, & generate forensic stories important to mission of defending nationwide safety & public.”
Whereas the contract doesn’t point out the title of the product, it’s seemingly referring to Graykey, a forensic system to unlock smartphones and extract knowledge from them, which was initially developed by Grayshift. Magnet Forensics merged with Grayshift following an acquisition by personal fairness agency Thoma Bravo in 2023.
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Other than this most up-to-date contract, the procurement database exhibits ICE and HSI signed a number of different contracts with Magnet Forensics and its accomplice Panamerica Computer systems, together with:
- A subscription for Magnet Griffeye Enterprise, a platform that collects, processes, organizes, and analyzes knowledge and proof. The contract for HSI is value $145,000 and was additionally signed on Tuesday.
- GrayKey Premier software program renewal licenses for “iOS and Android extractions of digital gadgets for regulation enforcement investigations,” particularly for HSI in Detroit, a contract value $90,000 and signed on September 5.
- A purchase order of software program licenses for Graykey to assist HSI “get well digital proof on a number of gadgets for investigative operations,” value $57,000 and signed on August 21.
- A contract value $12,000 for unspecified Magnet Forensics software program licenses for HSI in Charlotte, signed on August 18.
Magnet Forensics didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
An ICE spokesperson acknowledged TechCrunch’s outreach however didn’t remark by press time. DHS didn’t reply to a request for remark.
ICE has an intensive arsenal of tech instruments, together with facial-recognition software program offered by Clearview AI, cellular phone adware made by Paragon, and knowledge analytics software program made by Palantir, to assist its mass deportations marketing campaign.
Final 12 months, ICE signed a contract with Magnet Forensics for Graykey, value $5 million, as first reported by Forbes on the time. Graykey was launched in 2016 to compete with the extra established phone-hacking system UFED, made by Israeli firm Cellebrite.
