{"id":161091,"date":"2026-03-12T03:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161091\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:37:13","slug":"foreign-hacker-compromised-fbis-cache-of-epstein-files-at-ny-field-office-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161091\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign hacker compromised FBI’s cache of Epstein files at NY field office in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

A foreign hacker unknowingly compromised a cache of the FBI\u2019s documents on Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> three years ago and was so disgusted by what they saw in the files that they threatened to report them to the FBI.<\/p>\n

The cybercriminal hacked into the New York Field Office\u2019s network and stumbled across child abuse images related to the federal probe into Epstein on Feb. 12, 2023, without realizing they had breached a law enforcement server, sources told Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The befuddled hacker was so horrified by the troves of disturbing content they found on the server<\/a> that they left a message, unknowingly to the FBI, threatening to turn the owner of the content over to that very agency.<\/p>\n

Some Epstein files were compromised during a cyber break-in at an FBI field office in 2023. DOJ<\/p>\n

They refused to believe that the actual FBI operated the server until bureau officials joined a video chat with them and displayed their law enforcement credentials in front of the web camera, the source said.<\/p>\n

The unidentified individual \u2014 believed to be a lone cybercriminal rather than an agent of a foreign government \u2014 was able to penetrate the FBI\u2019s network after a long-time staffer and special agent mistakenly left a server open at the Child Exploitation Forensic Lab, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

The snafu went unnoticed until the special agent returned to his computer the next day and received a warning that the network had been compromised.<\/p>\n

The FBI then discovered unusual activity indicating someone was \u201ccombing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what exact files the hacker accessed. AP<\/p>\n

The bureau conducted an internal investigation into the breach and said it was \u201can isolated\u201d incident. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe FBI restricted access to the malicious actor and rectified the network. The investigation remains ongoing, so we do not have further comments to provide at this time,\u201d the FBI said in a statement to the publication.<\/p>\n

A source told the outlet that the intrusion was more cybercriminal in nature, rather than an attack from a foreign government. Still, the source admitted they didn\u2019t know much else about the hacker, including their country of origin or what exact files they accessed.<\/p>\n

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while in custody in 2019. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Another 47,000 Epstein files were released by the DOJ last week. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately clear if any of the files gleaned by the hacker were published in the Department of Justice\u2019s sprawling drop of documents related to its probe of the dead pedophile. <\/p>\n

The DOJ\u2019s initial rollout of the Epstein files was criticized for both delays and redaction errors.<\/p>\n

Some blacked-out portions of the documents released in December, crossed out in Adobe Acrobat, could be manually unredacted<\/a> when pasted into Google Docs or Microsoft Word.<\/p>\n

Other redactions appeared haphazard, like the inclusion of \u201cseveral thousand documents\u201d that accidentally identified the victims<\/a> or scrubbing Epstein\u2019s face<\/a> while keeping other known associates visible.<\/p>\n

Another 47,000 files excluded \u201cfor further review\u201d<\/a> were published last week.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A foreign hacker unknowingly compromised a cache of the FBI\u2019s documents on Jeffrey Epstein three years ago and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5970,24224,66462,6769,9,11,10,58],"class_list":["post-161091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-fbi","tag-fbi-investigations","tag-hackers","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}