Allegations of Epstein Being a 'Personal Hacker' and This Week's Security Agenda

Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday brought a new claim to light in the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. According to documents first reported by TechCrunch, an informant told the FBI in 2017 that Epstein had a 'personal hacker.'

Claim of a 'Very Good Hacker'

The document does not clearly specify the hacker's identity but suggests they were born in Italy's Calabria region and specialized in discovering vulnerabilities in Apple's iOS mobile operating system, BlackBerry devices, and the Firefox browser. The informant stated the hacker was 'very good at finding vulnerabilities.'

According to the claims, the hacker developed attack tools targeting unknown or unpatched vulnerabilities and sold these tools to various countries, including an unnamed Central African country, the UK, and the US. The informant even told the FBI that the hacker sold an exploit to Hezbollah and received 'a suitcase full of cash' in return.

The accuracy of the informant's account or whether the FBI verified the report is not clarified in the documents.

Viral AI Assistant OpenClaw Raised Security Concerns

This week, the AI assistant previously known as Clawdbot and briefly as Moltbot, now called OpenClaw, was in the spotlight due to its capabilities and the security risks it brings. It was reported that the assistant can automate tasks by being granted access to users' Gmail, Amazon, and many other accounts.

However, these autonomous capabilities also bring significant security and privacy risks. Security researchers found that hundreds of users had exposed their OpenClaw setups to the internet without protection, and in some cases, made full access to their systems publicly available. While it's stated that these misconfigurations have been corrected, researchers warn that such autonomous AI systems, which must operate beyond traditional security boundaries, could turn into a security nightmare.

Cyber Attack on Poland's Energy Grid: Russia Pointed To

The Polish government published a technical report on a series of cyber attacks targeting its energy systems. It was announced that the attackers used 'wiper' malware designed to delete data on targeted networks and attempted to infiltrate industrial control systems to disrupt facility operations, but did not cause any power outages.

Polonya attributed the attacks to the Berserk Bear (Dragonfly) group, believed to work on behalf of Russia's FSB intelligence service, rather than the Sandworm hacker group often blamed for energy infrastructure attacks. If confirmed, this has led to interpretations that the long-standing 'trigger-pulling restraint' shown by grid hackers linked to the FSB may have ended.

Other Significant Developments

Chinese authorities executed 11 members of the Ming crime family for operating scam farms in Myanmar. The family is reported to have earned $1.4 billion from illegal fraud and gambling operations between 2015 and 2023.

Independent cryptocurrency researcher ZachXBT claimed that $40 million worth of crypto assets seized by the U.S. government and held by a contractor firm were stolen. The claim suggests that behind the stolen funds is John Daghita, alleged to be the son of the contractor firm's president.

It was revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses the AI-powered Palantir system to summarize tips received on its tip line and has scanned the faces of countless individuals in the U.S. using a facial recognition application called Mobile Fortify.