Cellebrite gains spotlight as iPhone hearing is put on hold

The Department of Justice’s announcement that an unnamed person or group could help the FBI unlock the iPhone at the heart of an investigation into December’s mass shooting in San Bernardino has spurred a guessing game among journalists and security experts tracking the case.

According to the Justice Department, an “outside party” approached the agency Sunday with the offer of assistance, prompting it to ask a federal court in Riverside on Monday to postpone a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday while the department vetted the merits of the approach.

The Federal Procurement Data System, a database that tracks government contracts, shows that the FBI has paid Cellebrite’s U.S. subsidiary more than $2 million for hardware and software since 2009.

A key question in linking Cellebrite to the offer of assistance is whether the Israeli company has been able to find a way to defeat the stronger security protections in iOS 9, the latest version of Apple’s software for smartphones and tablets.

Cellebrite’s best-known hardware, the Universal Forensic Extraction Device, is used by many law enforcement agencies and has appeared in TV shows like CSI: