Met Police Suspends Oxygen Forensics Software Over Russian Links

⚡ The gist in 5 seconds - The Metropolitan Police has suspended the use of the digital forensics software Oxygen Forensics and launched a full internal review following accusations against the company by American prosecutors. - The scope is limited: the tool ran on an isolated IT system with no internet connection and was used in less than 0.2% of more than 23,000 actions by the digital forensics team over the past year. - US prosecutors do not claim the software contained malicious code or was used to gain unauthorized access to clients' systems and data. ### 🔍 What was found Scotland Yard confirmed it has paused the use of Oxygen tools pending the results of the review. "We have suspended the use of the tool while we conduct a full review," a spokesperson for the force said. According to them, the impact on ongoing investigations is assessed as extremely limited, and the Met does not pass data obtained during investigations to Oxygen Forensics Inc. The contract with Oxygen was signed in December 2023 and runs for three years — meaning the purchase took place long before the current accusations. Digital forensics specialists used the software to extract and analyze data from phones and other devices seized during investigations. The charges were brought by the US Department of Justice. According to its version, Oxygen, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, presented itself to American government customers as an independent American company, but was in fact owned and controlled by five Russian citizens through a holding in Cyprus. The same five, prosecutors claim, owned the Moscow-based MKO Systems — formerly Oxygen Software — where developers wrote the Oxygen software. MKO sold the technology in Russia under different names, with the FSB, Investigative Committee, and Ministry of Internal Affairs named among the clients. American buyers of the product included, among others, Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, and the Secret Service's National Computer Forensics Institute. ### 💡 Why it matters The story extends far beyond a single force: the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said that other UK forces also use Oxygen products and urged them to conduct their own local assessments and "understand and localize" the identified issues. At the same time, the NPCC stresses that accusations remain accusations, and US authorities have explicitly stated they do not claim either the presence of malicious code or unauthorized access to client data. The fallout has already spread across Europe — Romanian authorities have begun phasing out Oxygen products, and Latvia's State Police has suspended work with the software pending an assessment. The Register reached out to the Met, NPCC, and Oxygen Forensics for comment. In essence, the case raises the question of transparency in the provenance of digital forensics tools in law enforcement procurement chains. ### 🧩 Context A separate line of the case is criminal. Russian national Oleg Sergeevich Davydov, 52, was detained at a London airport

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