PR90619

PETAH TIKVA, Israel, July 14, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Cellebrite, the global leader in Digital Intelligence (DI) solutions for the

public and private sectors, today published its annual Digital Intelligence

Benchmark Report for 2021, an analysis of responses from 2,000 agency managers,

investigators, analysts and forensic examiners working in law enforcement

agencies across 117 different countries.

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The study into DI -- which makes digital data accessible and actionable in

legally sanctioned investigations -- reveals that despite a drop in certain

crime types across some of the world's biggest economies as a result COVID-19

lockdown, agencies are still struggling to keep pace, process and analyze

digital evidence quickly and effectively.

Nearly half the world's population -- 3.9 billion people -- was under some form

of lockdown by the first week of April 2020. A United Nations report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=336657890&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unodc.org%2Fdocuments%2Fdata-and-analysis%2Fcovid%2FProperty_Crime_Brief_2020.pdf&a=A+United+Nations+report

) based on data from 30 countries revealed that reported robbery, theft, and

burglary declined significantly because of the pandemic, falling by more than

50% in most countries, with larger decreases where lockdown measures were

stricter. In certain countries, homicides also fell by an average of 25% during

March/April 2020 in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. However, according

to an April 2021 CNN report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=3480597960&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2021%2F04%2F03%2Fus%2Fus-crime-rate-rise-2020%2Findex.html&a=according+to+an+April+2021+CNN+report

) the US saw a significant rise in violent crime (33%) in major cities in 2020

and it is not letting up in 2021.

Despite this temporary dip in certain crimes, the Digital Intelligence

Benchmark Report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=1077668883&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cellebrite.com%2Fen%2Findustry-report%2F&a=Digital+Intelligence+Benchmark+Report) reveals the amount of overtime worked by examiners in 2020 declined by just 3 per cent compared to 2019 levels. On the other hand, investigators are spending an average of 48 hours a week reviewing photos, recorded videos, and text

messages from devices, along with CCTV and security videos, and creating

reports. Furthermore, investigators reported a 5 to 7-day average turnaround

time to receive data and an initial report from examiners in the lab.

The implications of not speeding up the digital investigation process for

solving crimes and saving lives are significant because, according to the

study, digital evidence plays a role in almost two thirds (63%) of all

investigations. Of those investigations, smartphones were an evidence source in

96%, followed by Windows computers (52%), feature phones (45%), tablets (39%)

and even emerging technologies such as wearables (8%) and cryptocurrencies (8%).

Mark Gambill, EVP at Cellebrite comments: "We could see there was no

improvement against many KPIs our industry tracks despite the dips in crime

we've seen throughout 2020. Law enforcement's ability to lawfully access locked

devices continues to slow-down investigations. And, we were not at all

surprised to see the importance of digital evidence to solving crimes clearly

reflected in the data, as well as new technologies such as crypto and wearables

playing a role in advancing investigations. Agency managers, investigators,

analysts and forensic examiners didn't have any respite last year and the

situation is about to worsen as crime rates, particularly violent crime, are

rising quickly across major metropolitan areas across the world."

The report also reveals that managers within law enforcement agencies recognize

that there are still major inefficiencies in the investigation ecosystem. 55%

of agency managers said they have a poor or no digital transformation strategy

and are likely to prioritize digital transformation.

The report highlights five major development areas that are inhibiting law

enforcement agencies from fully leveraging their digital evidence as part of

their investigative workflow:

    -- Staffing shortages: Despite recruitment and retention challenges that

       law enforcement agencies are grappling with, the Digital Intelligence

       Benchmark Report revealed just 7% of agencies hired or plan to hire

       additional examiners to help process digital evidence. This resource

       crunch is placing an additional burden onto agencies that are at or

       above their existing investigative capacity.

    -- Skills shortage: Most law enforcement agencies are still lacking

       sufficient IT expertise to implement and operationalize new digital

       technologies to speed up the investigative workflow of collecting,

       analyzing, managing, and storing digital evidence. Investigators also

       lack the additional training needed to effectively use tools such as

       analytics.

    -- Tools & technologies: 97% of investigators feel key evidence is

       missing or lost when reviewing digital data and 47% of examiners feel

       they miss significant amounts of data from device examinations. They

       agreed that with so much time and energy spent on reviewing digital

       data, more effective tools are needed to accelerate time to evidence.

    -- Inter- and intra-agency silos: Digital evidence from multiple devices

       often needs to be compared, contrasted, and investigated alongside

       other data sources such as cloud, CDRs, data from RMS and internal

       police databases. However, because of silos between different

       departments and IT systems, and evidence storage on removable media

       rather than a centralized evidence management system, it takes longer

       than it should to surface insights and leads. The report stated that 1

       in 3 agency managers are not satisfied with the collaboration

       capabilities within their agency and with agency partners.

    -- DI Strategy and foresight: 55% of agency managers said they have a

       poor or no digital transformation strategy and are likely to

       prioritize digital transformation. A staggering third (34%) of agency

       managers reported that they were dissatisfied with their agency's

       strategy for collecting, preserving, managing, and safeguarding

       digital evidence and 35% said they were dissatisfied with their

       agency's strategy for processing and analyzing digital evidence.

The Digital Intelligence Benchmark Report also makes a series of

recommendations for how agencies can get back on the front foot:

    -- Assess the gaps and outline a solid DI strategy to ensure your path to

       digital policing is charted. Along the way you will surely need to

       course-correct, but setting the direction is paramount.

    -- Recruit tech-minded talent that are so integral to the future of

       policing by changing traditional approaches to hiring and creating

       career pathways that are attractive for skilled technology workers.

    -- Invest in new technologies and training that enable investigators to

       efficiently collect and review evidence from any device or source and

       accelerate the analysis of that evidence to solve crimes quicker.

    -- Break down information silos within the agency, and between agencies,

       by building a culture of collaboration through first-class

       investigative workflow for the digital age -- operations, systems,

       personnel, and processes.

The full report can be downloaded at:

https://www.cellebrite.com/en/industry-report/

About Cellebrite

Cellebrite's mission is to enable its customers to protect and save lives,

accelerate justice, and preserve privacy in communities around the world.

Cellebrite is the global leader in Digital Intelligence solutions for the

public and private sectors, empowering organizations to master the complexities

of legally sanctioned digital investigations by streamlining intelligence

processes. Trusted by thousands of leading agencies and companies in more than

140 countries, Cellebrite's Digital Intelligence platform and solutions

transform how customers collect, review, analyze and manage data in legally

sanctioned investigations. To learn more visit us at www.cellebrite.com and

https://www.cellebrite.com/en/investors/.

Contacts

Media

Adam Jaffe

VP of Global Communications

+1 973 206 7643

adam.jaffe@cellebrite.com

- or -

RapidResponse@cellebrite.com

Investors

Anat Earon-Heilborn

VP, Investor Relations

+972 73 394 8440

investors@cellebrite.com

SOURCE Cellebrite