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Serbian Authorities Allegedly Used AI-Powered Cellebrite Tools to Unlock Journalist’s Phone and Install Spyware

December 16, 2024

Accusations have surfaced that Serbian authorities utilized Cellebrite's AI-enhanced forensic tools to gain unauthorized access to journalists' and activists' phones, without their consent. These tools were reportedly used to install NoviSpy, a newly discovered spyware. The alleged actions enabled covert data extraction, remote activation of microphones and cameras, and extensive surveillance. Amnesty International presented evidence linking Serbia's Security Information Agency (BIA) to these attacks. In response, Cellebrite halted sales to Serbia after the report was released.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

Alleged deployer
serbian-security-information-agency-(bia), serbian-police, government-of-serbia
Alleged developer
serbian-security-information-agency-(bia), cellebrite
Alleged harmed parties
slavisa-milanov, nikola-ristic, krokodil, journalists-in-serbia, human-rights-defenders-in-serbia, environmental-activists-in-serbia, dissidents-in-serbia, civil-society-organizations-in-serbia

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/961

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.