Award Notice - Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Forensic Certification Training

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Office of Acquisition Management, awarded a sole-source contract to Cellebrite, Inc. for $236,280 to provide two instructor-led forensic certification training programs in July and August 2026. The training, delivered in person or virtually at the designated performance location in Fairfax, Virginia, will certify 24 participants in each session on the Cellebrite Inseytes UFED platform through the Certified Operator and Certified Physical Analyst (CCO+CCPA) and Certified Advanced Smartphone Analyst (CASA) programs. This award was justified under FAR 12.102 as a commercial item acquisition due to Cellebrite’s unique and irreplaceable technical capabilities, including proprietary extraction methods that support over 15,000 mobile device models, the ability to bypass encryption and recover hidden data, and the legal defensibility of its forensic outputs, which are widely accepted in U.S. courts. The contract supports the HERO program and maintains the HSI’s operational readiness by ensuring all certified forensic analysts meet the Basic Computer Evidence Recovery Training (BCERT) standard, with no alternative vendor offering comparable device coverage, forensic reliability, or court-recognized methodology. The contracting officer, Michelle Levine, and contracting officer representative, Kimberly Wright-Whitson, oversaw the procurement, which utilized operations and maintenance funds for fiscal year 2026 under a firm-fixed-price purchase order. The procurement followed a formal sole-source justification process with no competing offers received after a notice of intent was published on SAM.gov, and the contract includes no options, subcontracting requirements, or special packaging or marking provisions, as the scope is entirely service-based with no physical deliverables.