In Serbia, officials, activists and hacking journalists’ phones It was claimed that they had installed spyware. Amnesty International reported that Serbian police used Cellebrite tools to hack into their devices. has gained unauthorized access and stated that he was being held for false reasons.

Serbian police It was revealed that activists and journalists used spyware and mobile device hacking tools to hack their phones. Produced by the Israeli company Cellebrite, these tools were originally designed to help law enforcement unlock devices for forensic purposes.

Detention procedure applied to journalists

Civil society members’ phones were confiscated for various reasons their detention Detention periods are then extended due to additional procedures (drug testing and psychological evaluations). During this time, authorities gain access to phones and use a device called “Novispy”, possibly developed by the state. They install spyware. Amnesty International has announced that some devices will be updated to Qualcomm vulnerabilities It says it was hacked with .

Slaviša Milanov, vice president and editor-in-chief of the Serbian news site FAR, was stopped by Serbian authorities and their phones were confiscated. When the phones came back, they noticed changes like turning off data and Wi-Fi and running apps that were using too much power. Milanov stated that when his Android device, Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S, was repossessed, it ran additional software and extracted 1.6 GB of data, although he did not give his password to the police.

In response to questions from Amnesty International, Cellebrite senior director Victor Cooper said the company’s products are only licensed for use in accordance with legally approved investigations or court orders, according to the user agreement. Moreover, he says in his statement Cellebrite He said they are investigating the alleged misuse of their technologies and are ready to impose the necessary sanctions in cooperation with the relevant institutions.