WASHINGTON — A foreign hacker accessed an FBI server at the bureau’s New York Field Office on Feb. 12, 2023, and reached files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, according to a Reuters report based on newly released Justice Department documents and a source familiar with the matter. The breach appears to have started with an exposed system, raising new questions about how securely the government handled a large cache of Epstein-related records, March 11, 2026.
The FBI said the cyber incident was an “isolated one” and that its investigation remains ongoing. A separate ABC News report said the intrusion was discovered the next day after an agent found signs the network had been compromised and unusual activity tied to two IP addresses.
What the Epstein files breach report says
The public record still leaves major gaps. Reuters said the source described the intruder as a foreign hacker, but not necessarily a foreign government actor. The newly surfaced timeline did not say which files were downloaded, if any, or who carried out the breach. What is clear is that the hacker got into a New York FBI server used in child-exploitation evidence work and moved through files the records described as relating to the Epstein investigation.
That matters because the federal review of Epstein material is vast. In a Jan. 30 Justice Department press release, the department said it had published more than 3 million additional pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, bringing total production to nearly 3.5 million pages. The department’s Epstein disclosures portal shows those records were spread across multiple data sets and include prior DOJ disclosures and Freedom of Information Act material.
A separate DOJ-FBI memo released in July 2025 said the government review uncovered more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence, underscoring why any unauthorized access raises questions even if officials still have not said whether the hacker removed files.
Why the Epstein files breach matters now
The timing is as important as the intrusion itself. The breach details emerged only after the Justice Department’s broader release effort pushed millions of pages, images and videos into public view, turning the handling of Epstein records into both a transparency fight and a cybersecurity story. Even now, officials say some material remains redacted or withheld to protect victim identities and avoid harming ongoing matters.
How the story built over time
This did not surface out of nowhere. Reuters reported in February 2023 that the FBI was investigating a hack of its own network, though the public connection to Epstein-related files was not made at the time.
Pressure around the records only grew. AP reported in November 2025 when Trump signed legislation compelling the Justice Department to release the files, and AP reported again in December 2025 when the department’s first major public dump arrived but left many of the biggest questions unresolved.
For now, the newly revealed breach answers one narrow question and opens several bigger ones. It shows that someone outside the bureau reached Epstein-related investigative files inside an FBI server in New York in 2023. It does not yet show what that person took, what they understood they had found, or whether the full impact of the intrusion will ever be known.
