A confidential informant told the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein had a “personal hacker,” according to a document released by the Department of Justice on Friday as part of its disclosure of records tied to the Epstein investigation.
Allegations Detailed In Released Document
The document does not identify the alleged hacker by name but provides background details supplied by the informant. According to the account, the hacker was an Italian national from the Calabria region in southern Italy and specialised in identifying security weaknesses in iOS, BlackBerry devices, and the Firefox web browser.
The informant said the hacker developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to multiple governments, including an unnamed central African country, the UK, and the US.
Claims Of Sales To Non-State Actors
The document also states that the informant told the FBI the hacker sold a zero-day exploit to Hezbollah, which allegedly paid for the exploit with “a trunk of cash.” The informant described the individual as highly skilled at finding software vulnerabilities.
Limits Of The Information
The allegations in the document are attributed solely to the confidential informant and are not presented as findings or conclusions of the FBI. The document does not indicate whether the FBI independently verified the claims.
Broader Release Of Epstein Files
The document was released the same day the Justice Department announced it had made public an additional 3.5 million pages of records related to Epstein. The newly disclosed materials, some of which are heavily redacted, include more than 2,000 videos and approximately 180,000 images.
Featured image credits: Heute.at
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