A hacker in 2023 was able to access an FBI server that contained some files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to documents released by the Department of Justice earlier this year.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the FBI said an investigation into the “cyber incident” is ongoing.
“Following the 2023 cyber incident, the FBI contained the affected network and determined the incident to be an isolated one,” the statement said. “The 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.”
Files released earlier this year by the DOJ to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act suggested that the hacker accessed “certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation.” According to an email and sworn account by the FBI agent who identified the incident, a hacker was able to access a server related to the FBI's New York Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
According to the agent, the hack took place on Feb. 12, 2023, which was Super Bowl Sunday, and was identified the following Monday. The agent said he identified “strange” activity from two IP addresses after getting a notification that his “network has been compromised.”
“The activity included combing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation. I reached out to one of the case agents to see if they were in the office yesterday, thinking that maybe they inadvertently changed a setting ... or if they noticed anything strange about them,” the agent wrote in a timeline of the incident.
According to the agent, he immediately reported the intrusion to his supervisor and took steps to contain the incident.