On Tuesday, two survivors of child sex abuse accused the Justice Department of failing to notify dozens of victims found in Jeffrey Epstein’s massive collection of child sex images.

In a proposed class action, survivors explained that Epstein apparently started collecting child sex images in the 1990s, many of which the DOJ recovered after his arrest. In 2025, the FBI started reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” containing illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and issued a memo confirming that “a large volume of images” seized depicted likely minors.

Some of these victims may have had contact with Epstein, as the disgraced financier kept a "modelbook" of nude photos of young girls roped into his ring. However, the FBI also identified hundreds of CSAM images in cache, which include approximately 15–20 images of known CSAM dating back to the 1990s. And so far, the DOJ has largely ignored those victims, who likely never met Epstein and have no way of knowing if he possessed, transported, or traded their images, survivors alleged.

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The Office of Personnel Managements says it received only 7,618 retirement claims last month — down from more than 10,000 claims OPM received in July.

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The US government backs OpenAI and Microsoft in a major copyright fight, arguing AI training is fair use and important to national security.

The post OpenAI Gets US Government Backing in Major AI Copyright Fight appeared first on TechRepublic.

The US government backs OpenAI and Microsoft in a major copyright fight, arguing AI training is fair use and important to national security.

The post OpenAI Gets US Government Backing in Major AI Copyright Fight appeared first on TechRepublic.

Bitcoin Magazine

Iranian Hacking Crew Charged in Sprawling Theft Case — Including $6M Bitcoin Ransom 

Feds have hit 17 Iranians with criminal charges for allegedly conducting a years-long campaign of cyber attacks — including trying to extort HBO for $6 million in bitcoin.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that the 17 individuals were working with the Mabna Institute, which carried out hacking campaigns on ​behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian ​government and university clients.

Hundreds of U.S. and ⁠international universities, dozens of companies, and at least five ​state and federal government agencies were targeted in the campaign. 

Part of the indictment mentioned Behzad Mesri, who was previously charged with hacking entertainment giant Home Box Office — HBO — and stealing proprietary data. The crime then saw Mesri try and extort approximately $6 million worth of Bitcoin. 

Prosecutors added that five other defendants — Saeid Houshyar, Manouchehr Hashemloo, Keyvan Fayaz, Saber Shahbazi Ballojeh, and Arman Kahzadian — were directly involved in the hack. 

The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is now offering up to $10 million for information on the location of the defendants. 

“Today’s charges, which include eight additional defendants, reveal the broader network allegedly behind a sweeping, state-sponsored campaign to steal research and intellectual property from American universities, businesses, and government institutions,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York said in a statement. 

Founded around 2013 by Gholamreza Rafatnejad and Ehsan Mohammadi, the Mabna Institute allegedly worked at the behest of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian clients. 

The stolen research didn’t just go to Tehran’s intelligence services. Prosecutors say it was resold through two websites, Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir, the latter renting out hijacked professor logins so Iranian customers could walk straight into foreign university libraries. 

U.S. institutions had spent some $3.4 billion acquiring the material in the first place. Separate victims racked up more than $20 million cleaning up the breaches.

This post Iranian Hacking Crew Charged in Sprawling Theft Case — Including $6M Bitcoin Ransom  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.