The FBI has caught Indian fugitive Deepanshu Kher using real-time travel data. The case has exposed the nexus between FBI and Sabre, a travel technology company based in Southlake, Texas.
The case of the capture of Indian fugitive Deepanshu Kher has exposed how FBI was using info for surveillance from Sabre, an enormous travel data holder that has information of travelers around the world. Officials have asked the company to “actively spy” on suspected targets, even while they’re travelling, according to Forbes. This could be utilized to keep an eye on suspects wherever, they are.
Surveillance of Deepanshu Kher
It was in December 2019 that the FBI asked Sabre for “real time” weekly surveillance of an Indian fugitive, Deepanshu Kher. This was to be done for a term of six months. In this ‘surveillance work’ the firm was expected to furnish FBI with “travel orders, transactions or reservations” of Kher. He was actually caught in January and placed under house arrest, since then.
There’s little information about Kher’s case; an indictment from November 2019 simply notes he was charged with attacking the computer hosting a website of an unnamed San Diego company, causing more than $5,000 in damage. Now under home arrest, Kher was apprehended in January and has pleaded not guilty to one charge of intentional damage to a protected computer.
Click to access All-Writs-Act-Order-on-Sabre-to-Give-Real-Time.pdf
This travel data has also been used to catch people like alleged card scam site operator Alexei Burkov.
Along with Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport are the other two, enormous data giants used by FBI for real-time surveillance.
The FBI currently uses the All Writs Act, the identical controversial measure it tried to use to force Apple to hand over iPhone data, to request Kher’s information.
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