Micro Systemation AB

Micro Systemation AB (Micro Systems or MSAB) provides digital forensic technologies to military, law enforcement, and immigration authorities around the world. Its tools extract data from thousands of types of digital devices, including locked, outdated, and damaged devices. As of July 2024, MSAB’s digital forensics systems include seven products: XRY and XRY Pro (extraction tools), Frontline and Raven (portable kits for data extraction and analysis), XAMN and XAMN Pro (analytic software), and XEC (a data management system).

U.S. immigration authority Customs and Border Protection (CBO) uses MSAB extraction equipment to collect the personal information of immigrants. From 2010 to July 2024, CBP spent over $4.6 million on MSAB tools. The Tucson, Ariz., CBP office, for example, has used the software for “forensic mapping and assisting field units with investigations.” CBP also uses MSAB software to extract and analyze personal information from cars, including call logs, contact lists, SMS messages, emails, pictures, videos, social media feeds, and navigation histories.

MSAB has created these vehicle forensic kits since 2016 in collaboration with U.S-based Berla Corporation. The collaboration brings together Berla’s  iVe vehicle forensics hardware with MSAB’s XAMN analytics software. In 2018, CBP identified Berla's iVe kit as the only tool on the market able to extract information from vehicles. In 2020, 2022, and 2023, CBP purchased iVe kits with accompanying MSB software and training for over $1 million collectively.

In 2021, a U.S. federal court ruled that Border Patrol agents do not need a warrant for the search and seizure of digital devices at ports of entry. Though some courts extend Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures to include cell phones, there are still legal gray areas around data extraction from other digital devices such as cars’ infotainment systems. Berla founder Ben LeMere has taken pride in the amount of information the system can extract from car systems, saying that individuals “rent cars and go do things with them and don’t even think about the places they are going and what the car record,” and, “it’s quite comical when you sit back and read some of the text messages.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also used MSAB equipment, spending more than $800,000 on its technology from 2011 to 2016. Multiple ICE contracts refer to the equipment as “mission critical.” These tools have been used, for example, by ICE’s  National Gang Unit and in special operations case work.

MSAB has also sold its products to state Departments of Corrections (DOC) in, for example, Tennessee, Indiana, and Kansas. Officials use MSAB tools to extract information from phones and other devices found in prisons and jails, allowing prison authorities to “access critical information regarding social networks between prisoners.” For example, prison staff have used MSAB equipment to hack into and recover flight data from drones landing at prisons. In Tennessee, prison staff have used MSAB technology to monitor people on parole, probation, and community service.