Informant Reveals Jeffrey Epstein Employed a ‘Personal Hacker’

As the standoff between the United States government and Minnesota continues this week over immigration enforcement operations that have effectively taken over the Twin Cities and other areas of the state, a federal judge postponed a decision and called for a new briefing on whether the Department of Homeland Security is employing armed raids to persuade Minnesota to drop its sanctuary policies for immigrants. Meanwhile, shortly after a federal immigration officer shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last Saturday, officials from the Trump administration and far-right influencers launched a smear campaign, labeling Pretti as a “terrorist” and a “lunatic.” As part of its surveillance efforts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been utilizing an AI-driven Palantir system since last spring to condense tips received through its hotline, as outlined in a newly published Homeland Security document. DHS immigration agents have also utilized the controversial facial recognition app Mobile Fortify to scan numerous individuals in the US—including many who are citizens. A recent filing from ICE offers insights into how commercial tools, including those for advertising technology and big data analysis, are increasingly being considered by the government for law enforcement and surveillance purposes. An active military officer analyzed federal immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and across the US for WIRED, concluding that ICE is presenting itself as a military force while employing immature tactics that would place real soldiers in jeopardy. WIRED shared extensive insider information this week about the inner workings of a scam compound in Laos’s Golden Triangle region, after a human trafficking victim known as Red Bull communicated with a WIRED reporter for several months and leaked a massive cache of internal documents from the compound where he was held. Importantly, WIRED also documented his personal experiences as a forced laborer in the compound and his attempts to escape. Deepfake “nudify” technology and tools for creating sexual deepfakes are becoming increasingly advanced and accessible, presenting growing risks for millions of individuals who are victimized by these technologies. Additionally, research released this week found that an AI stuffed animal toy from Bondu had its web console nearly entirely unsecured, leaving 50,000 logs of chats with children vulnerable to anyone with a Gmail account. And there’s more. Each week, we compile the security and privacy news that we didn’t cover in detail ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there. According to a document released by the Department of Justice on Friday, a confidential source informed the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein had a “personal hacker.” This document, primarily reported by TechCrunch, was released as part of a substantial collection of materials the DOJ is mandated to share concerning the investigation into the late sex offender. While the document does not disclose the hacker’s identity, it does offer some details: they were reportedly born in Italy’s Calabria region, and their hacking endeavors focused on identifying vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, BlackBerry devices, and the Firefox browser. The informant told the FBI that the hacker “was very good at finding vulnerabilities.” Allegedly, the hacker developed offensive hacking tools that included exploits for unrecognized and/or unpatched vulnerabilities and supposedly sold them to various countries, including an unnamed government in central Africa, the UK, and the US. The informant even stated to the FBI that the hacker sold an exploit to Hezbollah and received “a trunk of cash” in payment. It remains unclear whether the informant’s account is valid or if the FBI substantiated the report. The viral AI assistant OpenClaw—which was formerly known as Clawdbot and briefly as Moltbot—has captivated Silicon Valley this week. Technologists are allowing the assistant to govern their digital lives: linking it to online accounts and permitting it to perform tasks on their behalf. As reported by WIRED, the assistant operates on a personal computer and connects to other AI models while being granted access to your Gmail, Amazon, and numerous other accounts. “I could essentially automate anything. It was magical,” one entrepreneur shared with WIRED. They are not the only ones captivated by the powerful AI assistant. The creators of OpenClaw claim that over 2 million people have visited the project in the past week. Nevertheless, its agentic capabilities come with potential security and privacy risks—beginning with the requirement to grant access to online accounts—that may render it impractical for many users to operate securely. As OpenClaw has gained traction, security researchers have identified “hundreds” of cases where users have exposed their systems online, as reported by the Register. Several instances lacked authentication and fully exposed access to users’ systems.