Cognyte Software

Cognyte's own announcement feed, the source for its 2026 contract wins, none of which name a customer: $10m+ expansion with a Tier-1 national security agency (4 March); ~$5m with a Tier-1 US law enforcement agency (25 March); a three-year subscription valued at $20m+ in total with a long-standing EMEA customer (29 April); ~$5m upgrade with a Tier-1 APAC national security agency (20 May); ~$5m with an APAC national security agency (24 June); ~$5m with a Tier-1 agency in a NATO member nation (14 July); ~$15m expansion with an APAC military intelligence customer (28 July). Also records the $20m increase to share repurchases (3 March), the appointment of Adam Philpott as Chief Revenue Officer (22 July) and accession to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (4 August).

Thomas Brewster documents Cognyte's push into US law enforcement. Its FalcoNet cell-site simulator mimics a mobile tower to force nearby phones to connect, marketed as needing 'only three minutes to set up' and able to connect thousands of devices a minute, in vehicle, backpack and helicopter-mounted versions; Skylark tracks a phone from its number alone. Purchases documented include Texas State Police, $4.5m for four Chevrolet Tahoes fitted with FalcoNet, and the US Department of War, $400,000 for a backpack unit, both March 2026; Baltimore Police $920,000 (2022); Florida Department of Law Enforcement $765,000 (2024); Muscogee County Sheriff's Office $800,000 (late 2024); vans also at Albuquerque Police and New York State Police. US revenue rose from $10m in 2023 to $15m in 2025. Cognyte 'did not respond to multiple requests for comment'.

Q1 FY2027 revenue of $105.5m, up 10.4%, with a GAAP net loss of $3.0m against a $1.0m loss in the prior-year period, attributed mainly to foreign exchange. Total backlog $399.8m. FY2027 guidance maintained at $448m plus or minus 3%.

Revenue of $400.0m for the year ended 31 January 2026, up 14.1%, with GAAP net income of $4.6m against a $7.2m loss the previous year and GAAP operating income of $13.3m against a $5.1m operating loss - the company's first profitable year. Total backlog $433.4m. FY2027 guidance of $448m plus or minus 3%. The same release announced a ~$5m contract with a Tier-1 US law enforcement agency.

Procurement disclosure shows the Garda Security and Intelligence Section made two payments to Cognyte in 2024, of EUR 213,141 and EUR 63,292, totalling EUR 276,433. The purchase was made under the Office of Government Procurement framework. What was bought has not been disclosed; the Irish Times notes that sensitive acquisitions are not normally included in public procurement documents and that the appearance of these payments may have been inadvertent.

Corroboration of the FirstMile findings from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas, added so the Brazil material does not rest on a single low-tier source. It records that Brazil's Federal Police found more than 60,000 illegal searches were made through FirstMile between 2019 and 2021, that at least twelve journalists were among those targeted, and that the software was bought in 2018 for 5.7 million reais, around USD 1 million. The matter remains before Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, with victims still seeking access to what was collected. These are police investigative conclusions, not a judicial verdict.

The International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, and set out the obligations of states and the consequences for economic and trade dealings that entrench it. This is the framework within which an Israeli-headquartered company operating and employing at scale in Israel is assessed on this site.

Israel's Attorney General's office confirmed Cognyte held no state licence for the cyber-intelligence system sold to Myanmar. It nevertheless declined to open a criminal investigation, stating that 'the evidentiary basis is insufficient to open an investigation'. The finding and the refusal to act should always be reported together. (Haaretz's own headline attributes the confirmation to the State Attorney's Office, which sits within the Attorney General's remit; this page uses 'Attorney General's office' throughout for consistency.)

Brazil's Federal Police allege that FirstMile, a phone-location tracking system purchased from Cognyte which tracks devices across 2G, 3G and 4G networks, was operated inside the intelligence agency ABIN without judicial authorisation. Investigators identified monitoring of more than 33,000 mobile phones, including around 1,800 unauthorised accesses directed at politicians, journalists, lawyers, Supreme Court judges and opponents of the then president. Forbes independently reports that operatives close to the former president used Cognyte's phone location tracking technology to spy on political opponents. The investigation is active and still before Brazil's Supreme Federal Court. The figures are the Federal Police's investigative findings rather than facts established by a court, no verdict has been returned, and Cognyte is not a defendant: the alleged misuse is by the purchaser. The Knight Center's LatAm Journalism Review corroborates the findings independently.

Leaked documents showing Cognyte won Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications' lawful interception tender in December 2020, one month before the February 2021 coup, at a time when the transfer of defence equipment to Myanmar was illegal under Israeli law. A legal complaint and a demand that Israel revoke Cognyte's marketing and export licence were filed by the lawyer Eitay Mack on behalf of more than sixty signatories, including a former Speaker of the Knesset.

Cognyte Software Ltd is listed as excluded from the Government Pension Fund Global on the criterion 'Violation of human rights', decision dated 15 December 2022. Verified as still live on 4 August 2026. The same page records that the Norwegian Government has appointed a committee to review the ethical framework, reporting by 15 October 2026, and that under temporary guidelines 'Norges Bank shall not decide on observation or exclusion, but may revoke previous decisions on observation and exclusion'.

The primary document behind the only formal listing of Cognyte we have been able to verify anywhere. The Council recommends exclusion 'due to an unacceptable risk that the company is contributing to serious human rights abuses', assessed against section 4(a) of the ethical guidelines. It records that Cognyte is a continuation of Verint's surveillance business, that around 90% of revenue comes from existing customers, and that 'the company must have known that some of its customers have been accused of extremely serious human rights violations'. The Council states it 'has been particularly keen to understand what measures the company has implemented to avoid involvement in such norm violations in the future, but has received only superficial answers from the company'.

Meta names Cognyte among the surveillance-for-hire operators using its platforms and reports removing around 100 accounts Cognyte had created 'to social-engineer people and collect data'. Meta's conclusion on the industry as a whole: 'While these cyber mercenaries often claim that their services only target criminals and terrorists, our months-long investigation concluded that targeting is in fact indiscriminate and includes journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition members and human rights activists.' On Cognyte specifically the report states: 'Our investigation identified customers in Israel, Serbia, Colombia, Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Jordan, Thailand, and Indonesia. Their targets included journalists and politicians around the world.' Meta locates those customers in the named countries without identifying any of them, and does not say the states themselves were the customers: a customer in Israel is not shown to be the Israeli state. Meta also records that it disabled the seven entities named and 'issued Cease and Desist warnings'.

Amnesty alleges that Verint - the predecessor business Cognyte took over entire in 2021, not Cognyte itself - supplied bugging devices and support services to South Sudanese authorities including the National Security Service, via a telecommunications company operating in the country until 2018, and cites documents showing at least USD 762,236 paid to Verint between 2015 and 2017. Verint did not reply to Amnesty's questions. Attribute this to Verint and to the period before the demerger.