US marshal indicted over law enforcement tool misuse

Deputy U.S. Marshal Adrian Pena has been charged for misusing Securus Technologies' law enforcement tool for securing cell phone location information without necessary authorization, CyberScoop reports. Federal prosecutors alleged the fraudulent documents have been uploaded and certified by Pena to the Securus system, which was then leveraged to obtain cell phone location data for his acquaintances and their spouses. Pena has also not been truthful regarding his personal use of the Securus service, according to prosecutors, who have charged him with 11 counts of acquiring confidential phone records, two counts of false statements, and a single count of falsification of records. The charges come after Securus has been embroiled in controversies related to its collection of cell phone location data. Securus Technologies' phone location data collection "skirts wireless carriers legal obligation to be the sole conduit by which government conducts surveillance of Americans phone records and needlessly exposes millions of Americans to potential abuse and surveillance by the government," wrote Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a letter sent to then-Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Ajit Pai.