'1.75 Million Won Per Case' Cellebrite, Can It Also Unlock Jo Joo-bin's iPhone?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Cellebrite, a cryptographic decoding company headquartered in Israel, has recently attracted attention as a 'problem solver' in major investigations in South Korea.

According to the legal community on the 1st, the police are using Cellebrite's equipment to decrypt the iPhone password of Jo Joo-bin (24, in custody), the operator of the Telegram 'Baksa Bang' who produced and shared sexually exploitative videos.

Jo's iPhone is identified as the 'smoking gun' that will reveal the truth of the case. The police seized nine mobile phones used by Jo and examined seven of them first but did not obtain any significant results.

Accordingly, digital forensic work on the remaining one Samsung Galaxy model and one iPhone X model has become important. In particular, the iPhone is known to have been carried on Jo's person until just before his arrest by the police, who are focusing on decrypting its password.

Cellebrite's equipment was previously used by the prosecution for assistance. The prosecution unlocked the iPhone of A, a former special inspection team member of the Blue House's Civil Affairs Secretary Office who took an extreme step while under investigation for allegations of election interference and ordered investigations by the Blue House, on the 31st of last month using this equipment.

The digital forensic industry expects that 'the police will be able to unlock Jo's iPhone within three months at the latest.' There is no doubt about the equipment's capabilities.

Cellebrite's mobile phone password decryption is considered world-class. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the world's top investigative agency, purchased this company's equipment for $2 million (about 2.5 billion KRW) between 2012 and 2019.

Cellebrite's equipment is known to be capable of decrypting passwords for all iPhone models, including the latest 'X series.' It generates and applies up to 10 to 30 temporary passwords per second, prioritizing the most popular passwords.

Although the functionality is certain, the cost is considerable, and it is reported that our investigative authorities are bearing this cost to use the equipment. According to the influential American economic magazine Forbes, Cellebrite's equipment costs $1,500 (about 1.75 million KRW) to decrypt one iPhone password.

If digital forensic work such as iPhone decryption proceeds smoothly, it is expected to put pressure on suspects of the 'Nth Room case,' including Jo. Some in the legal community analyze that Jo recently hired a lawyer out of concern for materials that may emerge from the iPhone decryption.

Jo did not show any intention to hire a lawyer but appointed attorney Kim Ho-je (38, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 39) from the law firm Taeyoon as his legal representative on the 31st of last month.

According to the prosecution, under Article 123 of the Criminal Procedure Act, a suspect's lawyer can observe the investigative authorities' digital forensic work. This is to classify necessary digital forensic data for investigation and to prevent ruthless data collection and invasion of privacy.

Recently, courts have also tended to decide on the admissibility of evidence collected through digital forensics based on whether the lawyer was allowed to observe.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.