U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement arm Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has signed a contract worth $3 million with Magnet Forensics, a company that makes a phone-hacking and unlocking device called Graykey.
The contract, which appeared on Tuesday in a federal government procurement database, said it is for software licenses for the phone-hacking tech for HSI “to recover digital evidence, process multiple devices, & generate forensic reports essential to mission of protecting national security & public.”
While the contract doesn’t mention the name of the product, it’s likely referring to Graykey, a forensic system to unlock smartphones and extract data from them, which was originally developed by Grayshift. Magnet Forensics merged with Grayshift following an acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2023.
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Apart from this most recent contract, the procurement database shows ICE and HSI signed several other contracts with Magnet Forensics and its partner Panamerica Computers, including:
A subscription for Magnet Griffeye Enterprise, a platform that collects, processes, organizes, and analyzes data and evidence. The contract for HSI is worth $145,000 and was also signed on Tuesday.
GrayKey Premier software renewal licenses for “iOS and Android extractions of electronic devices for law enforcement investigations,” specifically for HSI in Detroit, a contract worth $90,000 and signed on September 5.
A purchase of software licenses for Graykey to help HSI “recover digital evidence on multiple devices for investigative operations,” worth $57,000 and signed on August 21.
A contract worth $12,000 for unspecified Magnet Forensics software licenses for HSI in Charlotte, signed on August 18.
Magnet Forensics did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
An ICE spokesperson acknowledged TechCrunch’s outreach but did not comment by press time. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
ICE has an extensive arsenal of tech tools, including facial-recognition software provided by Clearview AI, cell phone spyware made by Paragon, and data analytics software made by Palantir, to support its mass deportations campaign.
Last year, ICE signed a contract with Magnet Forensics for Graykey, worth $5 million, as first reported by Forbes at the time. Graykey was launched in 2016 to compete with the more established phone-hacking system UFED, made by Israeli company Cellebrite.
