The country's school districts have silently bought top-level hacking devices called "Cellebrite," which is known to be the Federal Bureau of Investigation's technology choice for hunting terrorists via cellphone or smartphone. The government-level hacking device is now in the school's possession, and their interests or purpose for the technology is unknown.

US Schools have kept this matter silent and private, but recent investigations have found that these institutions are looking into secret technologies to use as their "weapon" of choice in discovering things within the school system. The FBI and police departments initially purchased these phone hacking tools with the hopes of solving crime. 

According to Gizmodo, public documents show that the very institutions to teach and nurture students have secretly purchased smartphone cracking tools to use for unknown reasons. It seems as though these schools around the state have no intention of letting the public know that they have this kind of tech in their possession.

There are two in 2020 alone who bought their hacking devices from companies and listing them under "General Supplies, etc., and interestingly enough, the phone-hacking tools cost thousands of dollars in price. North East Independent School District (ISD) in San Antonio, Texas, specifically bought Cellebrite for $6,695 last March, a reasonably expensive tech device. 

Also, Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District is known to pay a known mobile device investigation firm called Oxygen Forensics, Inc., for $2,899, which did not disclose if it was a device last May. Conroe ISD initially purchased last 2016, a device from Susteen Inc., a device called the "Secure View" system, which amounts to $995.

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Phone Hacking Devices: Are Cellebrite and other Tech Needed in Schools?

According to KTRE's report, there was a case of student and teacher underaged relationship in a middle school in Shelbyville, Texas, which was discovered using the underaged male student and a Cellebrite UFED device. Initially, the device was lent by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office for investigation purposes. 

The investigation found a series of "I love you" text messages from the student's phone despite being deleted by the teenager. This event led to the arrest of Johanna Vickers, who was charged and convicted with 17 of the 18 counts of sexual abuse and relationship with an underage student.

The particular story represents an excellent application for the use of said phone hacking devices on a school system; however, this may not always be the case that would be seen in educational institutions. There are currently a limited number of rules or prohibitions that allow the use of these devices in the country's school, meaning that there can be abuse in using FBI-grade hacking devices. 

Moreover, students and teachers alike may be subjected to illegal or unlawful phone searches, which may not be reported to authorities when using. The data privacy breach by school systems may be used with abuse, offering the country's students to abuse, and most of these are part of the underaged minority group.

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Written by Isaiah Alonzo

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