Russian authorities declare Czech company behind software reportedly popular among Russian police ‘undesirable’

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has declared as “undesirable” a company that produces data extraction software reportedly popular among Russian police.

According to Russian authorities, the Czech firm Compelson s.r.o. creates software that enables access to information on electronic devices, including remotely, and supplies its tools to various countries, including the U.S.

“After the start of the special military operation, members of the organization provided Ukraine’s armed forces and intelligence agencies with free licenses for software and technical tools,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement. “These tools allow access to information stored on mobile phones, smartwatches, social media accounts, and cloud storage systems.”

Compelson’s most well-known product, MOBILedit, is used to extract data from smartphones. In 2019, the company’s founder, Dušan Kožušník, stated that Compelson’s forensic tools for analyzing phone contents were used in 162 countries.

According to the independent news site Agentstvo, the software is also used by Russian security forces. The outlet noted that in February 2024, two lecturers from the Russian Interior Ministry’s East Siberian Institute wrote in the school’s academic journal that MOBILedit is one of the "most popular software tools among police operational units." In 2015, another lecturer at the institute mentioned the software in the Bulletin of the Academy of the Investigative Committee, saying it could lead to "significant improvements in the information support of operational units' activities."