"Nigerian military targeted journalists’ phones, computers with “forensic search” for sources", 22 Oct 2019

... The Daily Trust raids are emblematic of a global trend of law enforcement seizing journalists’ mobile phones and computers—some of their most important tools... Forensics technology designed to extract information from phones and computers is marketed and sold to law enforcement agencies around the world. CPJ has found at least two companies that produce digital forensics tools—Israel-based Cellebrite and U.S.-based AccessData—operating in Nigeria, where CPJ research shows that security forces regularly arrest and interrogate journalists.

... Nigerian military investigators summoned Idris and Nurudeen Abdallah, the Daily Trust investigations editor, to question them about their sources for the report, which they refused to reveal, they told CPJ. Then the officers demanded their phones. “They said they want to scan it,” Idris told CPJ...

An individual within Nigerian law enforcement told CPJ that security forces use Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) and Forensic Toolkit (FTK) to retrieve information from devices. UFED is sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite, which is owned by the Japan-based SUNCORPORATION, while FTK is sold by the U.S.-based AccessData Group...

Cellebrite’s website says their UFED product can “[e]xtract and decode every ounce of data within digital devices” and that their equipment is deployed “in 150 countries.” Company records stolen by hackers and reported by VICE News in 2017 suggest client relationships with Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. U.S. federal law enforcement has also invested in the Cellebrite technology, according to government procurement information listed online and media reports. In Nigeria, “authorities seized [a drug lord’s] Samsung phone” during his arrest “and extracted and analyzed data from it using UFED,” according to a case study publicized on Cellebrite’s website.

Separately, Cellebrite’s UFED was used in Myanmar to “pull documents” from the phones of then jailed Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, The Washington Post reported in May 2019. Cellebrite said it required clients to “uphold the standards of international human rights law” or it may terminate their agreements, according to the Post’s report. Cellebrite’s terms and conditions state that products, software, and services are to be used “in a manner that does not violate the rights of any third party.”

CPJ reached Christopher Bacey, Cellebrite’s director of public relations... “For security and privacy reasons, Cellebrite company policy prohibits Cellebrite from discussing details of our customers and clients,” he said in an emailed statement provided in response. “Everything we do on behalf of our digital intelligence law enforcement, government and private enterprise customers is done to help accelerate criminal investigations and address the challenges of security in a digital world.” Msao Koda, who works in Cellebrite sales for SUNCORPORATION, similarly requested questions by email in September and did not respond before publication.

Like Cellebrite, AccessData advertises FTK as a tool to identify information on “any digital device or system producing, transmitting or storing data,”... Several CPJ calls to AccessData’s corporate headquarters in the U.S. were forwarded by an operator, then rang unanswered. Interview requests sent to two email addresses provided over the phone by people at their London and Frankfurt offices also went unanswered.