Hacking conference Def Con bans three people linked to Epstein

Def Con, one of the world’s largest and longest-running hacker conferences, announced Wednesday that three people linked to Jeffrey Epstein are no longer allowed to attend.

The conference justified the addition of Pablos Holman, Vincenzo Iozzo, and Goichi Ito to its general list of celebrities. Banned individualsCiting the three who appeared in the Justice Department’s recent release of files related to the investigation into the late investor and convicted sex offender. Def Con was also cited Article in Politico Based on emails the three exchanged with Epstein.

Def Con’s actions are “entirely performative, given that Mr. Iozzo has barely attended the convention in the past 20 years,” Iozzo’s spokesperson Joan Folero told TechCrunch in a statement.

“It was a rush to judgment as it was not based on any investigation or wrongdoing by Mr. Iozzo,” the spokesman said.

Representatives for Def Con, Holman, and Ito did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

The move to ban the three comes days after TechCrunch reported that cybersecurity conferences Black Hat and Code Blue He removed Iozzo from their official review board pagesAmid new and emerging discoveries linking the prominent hacker, among others, to Epstein.

Iozzo is a cybersecurity industry veteran and currently the founder and CEO of identity startup SlashID. He previously served as a director at CrowdStrike after the security giant acquired his cybersecurity startup IperLane in 2017. I mentioned TechCrunch previouslyIuzzo interacted with Epstein between 2014 and 2018, including after the Miami Herald. I mentioned New allegations That Epstein abused dozens of women and children.

Epstein plead guilty In 2008 for soliciting sex from girls and was registered as a sex offender in New York and Florida. Ministry of Justice 2019 accused Epstein trafficked, exploited, and abused dozens of underage girls. Epstein He died In prison.

Iozzo previously told TechCrunch that his interactions with Epstein “were limited to business opportunities that never materialized, as well as discussion of emerging markets and technologies,” and that he “never observed or engaged in any illegal activity or conduct.”

Before founding his startup, Iuzu was a research associate at the MIT Media Lab, which Ito was supervising at the time. The two appear in several of Epstein’s emails together.

Goichi Ito was director of the Media Lab at MIT until 2019, when to resign after it was reported that he was aware that Epstein was a convicted sex offender and that he and the university had extensive personal and financial relationships with Epstein.

Meanwhile, Holman is a general partner at venture capital firm Deep Future and describes himself on his website as a “hacker, inventor, and tech futurist.”

Holman had been in contact with Epstein since 2010, I planned to stay In one of his apartments in New York City in 2013, W I tried to help Epstein hides negative news stories about himself online.

According to an emailEpstein planned to attend Def Con with Holman in 2013, but it is unclear whether or not they attended. Def Con founder Jeff Moss He said As far as he knew, “Epstein never showed up.”