Files from the FBI’s investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were compromised during a breach by a foreign hacker in 2023, according to a source and documents in the US Justice Department.
In a statement, the FBI described the breach as a "cyber incident" and said that it was "an isolated one." The hack was first reported on February 18 2023 by CNN. The details of the incident, including that of the foreign hacker was reported by Reuters after a review of the Justice Department documents.
The hack occurred on February 12, 2023, in the FBI’s New York Field Office after one of its servers at the Child Exploitation Forensic Lab was left vulnerable by Special Agent Aaron Spivack, according to files in the DOJ's library. Spivack was trying to navigate the bureau’s complex procedures for handling digital evidence.
The following day, a text file warned Spivack that his network had been compromised.
Unusual activity was traced on the server after further investigation, including "combing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation.”
However, which specific files were accessed and whether or not the hacker downloaded the data and what they did with it, is unknown to the source. It is also not known whether the hacker was caught and punished for breaching law enforcement servers.
A person who was familiar with the breach said that the intrusion was made possibly by a foreign cybercriminal rather than a foreign government. However the incident still showed the files' potential intelligence value as the disgraced financier had links to prominent people in politics, academia, business and finance. The details in the files have led to multiple investigations worldwide.
According to the source, the hacker did not realise that he had breached a law enforcement server.
He expressed disgust at the presence of child abuse images on the device and left a message threatening to turn its owner over to the FBI, Reuters reported the person as saying.
The FBI officials reportedly diffused the situation by convincing them that they were actually the FBI. At one point, they had the hacker join a video chat where they showed him their credentials.
Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl. He was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019, in what was ruled a suicide, after being arrested again for the sex trafficking of minors.
Documents collected from the investigations into the financier were released to the public earlier this year. Many of the files are heavily redacted despite the law mandating their full release.
