Two firms that the jailbreak community is vividly familiar with have made it in the news this week after Israeli digital forensics company Cellebrite completed its acquisition of Corellium, a company renowned for its virtualization services that allow firms like Cellebrite to test their hacks and/or software on virtualized hardware, for $200 million.
Corellium dons a reputation for offering one of the best tools for cybersecurity and hacking. In fact, it’s no coincidence that Corellium was founded by David Wang (@planetbeing), a former iPhone jailbreak developer with hands-on expertise in regard to hacking iOS.
Corellium’s product has made it possible for hackers to test exploits without investing in physical hardware, and developers have often cited it as the best option available for such a task. For this reason, Apple even tried to shut Corellium down via a lawsuit but didn’t succeed.
Cellebrite, on the other hand, is known for being one of the most capable firms in the world when it comes to developing digital forensics tools that law enforcement agencies us to crack crime devices during investigations.
The merger is sure to be a controversial one, especially given the potential outcomes of combining one of the world’s best digital forensics firms and one of the world’s best iPhone virtualization firms.
Privacy advocates decry the merger as a loss for user privacy as it has the potential to empower police states by selling more capable Apple security defeating tools to agencies worldwide, while law enforcement agencies conversely express support for how much easier the result of this merger could make putting bad actors away for their crimes.
As Forbes reports, the merger could fast-track the development of a new product known as Mirror, which will make it possible for law enforcement to virtually clone a crime device for prosecutors and use said cloned device to sway juries in court cases.
It remains to be seen if jailbreak developers will continue to have access to Corellium’s iPhone virtualization tools following the merger or if Cellebrite will close it up for internal use only.
What are your thoughts about the Cellebrite acquiring Corellium? Let us know in the comments section down below.
