Jeffrey Epstein spent years building ties to well-known hackers

[BumRushDaShow]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by GP6971 (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Politico

02/14/2026 07:00 AM EST


Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for years communicated with experts in the cybersecurity community and expressed interest in attending two of the largest hacker conventions in the world, according to documents released by the Justice Department.

It’s unclear if Epstein ever attended either DEFCON or Black Hat, where thousands of hackers and researchers gather annually in Las Vegas to discuss the latest cyber vulnerabilities and trends. According to his emails with several prominent researchers and business people, his interest in cybersecurity and cryptography appeared to be widespread, ranging from discussions about removing information about himself from online search engines to network security.

Jeff Moss, founder of both the Black Hat and DEFCON conferences, told POLITICO in a statement that it’s unlikely Epstein actually made it to the conferences. “As far as we can tell, he wanted to attend, but never did,” Moss said of Epstein. “It looks like there were a lot of plans and I’m just waiting for some sort of evidence that he followed through on them.”

According to the released emails, Epstein first made plans to attend DEFCON for a few hours in August 2013 to meet with Pablos Holman, who at the time worked on various tech and cyber projects at private equity company Intellectual Ventures. It’s unclear whether Epstein and almost a dozen of his guests obtained tickets to DEFCON or if Epstein attended.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/14/epsteins-hackers-defcon-black-hat-00779365

[ck4829]

1. Seems in line with the dark enlightenment/alt-right pipeline he was a part of creating

Hire a hacker to make sure the other hackers don't find out who owns the sites suggesting bringing back feudalism, how democracy is stupid, and to lower the age of consent to 8.

[twodogsbarking]

2. Interesting how many illegal activities by Jeff are also dear to El Trumpo.

[mwmisses4289]

3. Since he was apparently there to meet people,

he could well have met them in the evening after the event closed for the day, or in the morning before it opened. So he could have been there, but not attended the convention.

[SunSeeker]

4. Amazing how easy it was for him to court men by offering them 14 year olds.

It worked on men from all walks of life.

[stopdiggin]

5. interesting. but then - a whole LOT of people (acress a wide range of private sector, gov., ..

and social movement) were interested in the whole hacking / cybersecurity issue. And that Included self, as just casual user and observer. But, also plenty of people (smart and otherwise) brainstorming on how this could be used to their (and occasionally others) benefit.

So - if Jeffery was interested ... Yeah - not really surprising.

[GP6971]

6. Locking per Host concensus. Not Late Breaking News.

A recap of Epstein's interest in the field.

Please feel free to repost in GD or E&OA.