ICE Unit Secures $3M Deal for Advanced Phone-Hacking Technology
▼ Summary
– ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations signed a $3 million contract with Magnet Forensics for phone-hacking software licenses to recover digital evidence and protect national security.
– The contract likely involves Graykey, a forensic system for unlocking smartphones and extracting data, developed by Grayshift before its acquisition by Magnet Forensics.
– Additional contracts with Magnet Forensics include a $145,000 subscription for Magnet Griffeye Enterprise and several smaller GrayKey software renewals for HSI offices.
– ICE uses various tech tools like Graykey, Clearview AI’s facial recognition, Paragon’s spyware, and Palantir’s analytics to support its operations, including deportations.
– This follows a previous $5 million ICE contract for Graykey in the prior year, as the tool competes with Cellebrite’s UFED system.
A major federal law enforcement agency has entered into a multimillion-dollar agreement to acquire advanced mobile forensic technology. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), specifically its investigative division Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), finalized a $3 million contract with Magnet Forensics for software licenses designed to extract data from locked smartphones. The technology will assist agents in recovering digital evidence, processing numerous devices, and producing forensic reports critical to safeguarding national security.
Although the contract does not explicitly name the product, industry experts widely believe it refers to Graykey, a powerful forensic tool originally developed by Grayshift. Magnet Forensics merged with Grayshift last year following an acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Graykey is engineered to bypass security on both iOS and Android devices, enabling law enforcement to access information that would otherwise remain encrypted.
This recent procurement is not an isolated event. Federal records reveal a series of agreements between ICE, HSI, and Magnet Forensics, as well as its partner Panamerica Computers, over recent months. These include a $145,000 subscription for Magnet Griffeye Enterprise, a platform that organizes and analyzes digital evidence. Additional contracts include a $90,000 software renewal for HSI in Detroit specifically for mobile extractions, a $57,000 license purchase to support investigative operations involving multiple devices, and a smaller $12,000 agreement for unspecified software in Charlotte.
Neither Magnet Forensics nor the Department of Homeland Security provided comments in response to media inquiries. An ICE spokesperson acknowledged the request but did not offer further details by the time of publication.
This investment is part of a broader pattern. Last year, ICE signed another contract with Magnet Forensics for Graykey worth $5 million, as initially reported by Forbes. Launched in 2016, Graykey was developed to compete with established mobile forensic systems like Cellebrite’s UFED. The technology now joins an expanding suite of digital tools employed by ICE, which also includes facial recognition software from Clearview AI, cell phone surveillance tools from Paragon, and data analytics platforms from Palantir. These resources play a central role in the agency’s enforcement and deportation operations.
(Source: TechCrunch)