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Thomas Brewster

@thomasbrewster

Forbes senior writer, covering privacy, surveillance and cybercrime. Editor of The Wiretap newsletter, featuring all of the above.

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Latest posts by Thomas Brewster @thomasbrewster

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A few hours after NYT reported that the U.S. bombed an elementary school in Iran, killing many children, the White House last night posted this video mixing airstrike footage with Top Gun, Iron Man, Gladiator, Halo, Breaking Bad, Star Wars, John Wick, Superman, Transformers and Dragon Ball Z

06.03.2026 14:32 πŸ‘ 1409 πŸ” 577 πŸ’¬ 320 πŸ“Œ 407

Should be the biggest story of this week, maybe of this presidency so far?

06.03.2026 14:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent ​strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reach...

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say www.reuters.com/world/middle...

06.03.2026 14:15 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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FBI investigating hack on its wiretap and surveillance systems: report | TechCrunch Hackers allegedly broke into the FBI’s networks, according to a report by CNN.

NEW: The FBI said it is investigating a hack on its networks.

The breach affected the FBI's systems to manage wiretaps and surveillace requests, according to CNN.

techcrunch.com/2026/03/05/f...

05.03.2026 21:36 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 4

Just realised this is a reverse password search! Novel...

06.03.2026 12:30 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Also something I've never seen before: Cloudflare being ordered to "collect all IPs" going through a customer's proxy.

In an investigation into the Caffeine Store cybercrime bazaar.

Cloudflare has been served with pen register orders many times before, but first time I've seen it in a court doc.

06.03.2026 12:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Never seen anything like this before... Mega being asked to try a specific password against "all" accounts. Unclear if this is just a range of accounts of interest or every single Mega account in existence.

From a CSAM investigation.

06.03.2026 12:24 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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She Came Out of the Bathroom Naked, Employee Says Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’...

The data from your Meta Ray Bans is used to train Meta's AI, which most people don't understand means that humans are looking at the most intimate details of their lives. www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/met...

04.03.2026 06:47 πŸ‘ 404 πŸ” 262 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 24

"β€˜President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth."

So the son of God chose the guy who talked about grabbing women by their genitals for this job? Gotta say, weird choice.

04.03.2026 11:36 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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San Francisco cop used license plate reader data to find wife’s stolen car: report In the latest abuse of Flock cameras, the officer posted images of the car on Instagram.

sfstandard.com/2026/02/27/s...

04.03.2026 06:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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OpenAI Blurs Its Mass Surveillance Red Line With New Pentagon Contract Anthropic saw a surveillance problem and walked. OpenAI saw an opportunity and signed. Now, Sam Altman is under fire for struggling to explain how OpenAI’s contract is any safer.

NEW - What AI + mass data collection + shady data broker industry looks like for Americans, in light of the Anthropic/OpenAI/Pentagon debacle.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

03.03.2026 16:10 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

They'll end up using Grok for mass surveillance on commercial data from shady brokers and it'll go just fine. Just fine.

03.03.2026 15:51 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

UPDATE: X has now suspended the Handala group's attack sometime after I alerted the company of its ties to the sanctioned MOIS intelligence agency.

03.03.2026 09:51 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

UPDATE: X has now suspended the Handala group's attack sometime after I alerted the company of its ties to the sanctioned MOIS intelligence agency.

03.03.2026 09:51 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Re the blue tick - Iranian intel agency MOIS is under US sanctions and no US company should be selling any services to them whatsoever.

02.03.2026 20:58 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Iranian Hackers Use Elon Musk’s Starlink To Stay Online As the attacks continue, Iranians have turned to Space X’s satellite internet technology β€” including one of the country’s most notorious hacker crews, which is claiming retaliatory cyberattacks agains...

🚨NEW🚨 One of Iran's most notorious hacker crews, linked by Israelis to Tehran's intelligence apparatus, is using Elon Musk's Starlink to stay online.

It also has a blue tick account on Elon Musk's X, where it's been advertising its unverified retaliatory hacks.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

02.03.2026 20:40 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Haha thanks man!

26.02.2026 19:58 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Wild to see this half a decade after I revealed Intellexa to the world: youtu.be/Tl3mpywMYFA?...

26.02.2026 19:13 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yes this - fpds.gov was the basis of a lot of investigations me and others have done over may years. The alternatives are shinier but far more convoluted and irritating.

26.02.2026 16:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Good thing @ddosecrets.org preserved those records ddosecrets.org/article/epst...

See also our collaboration with @jmail.world to make them searchable, including DDoSecrets' leaked archive of Epstein emails ddosecrets.org/article/epst..., which we partnered with @dropsitenews.com on

24.02.2026 12:50 πŸ‘ 48 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.

www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

24.02.2026 12:22 πŸ‘ 4382 πŸ” 1856 πŸ’¬ 173 πŸ“Œ 121
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Social Security Workers Are BeingΒ Told to Hand Over Appointment Details to ICE The recent request goes against decades of precedent, and puts noncitizens at further risk of immigration enforcement actions.

NEW: SSA has been told to tell ICE the "date and time" when certain people have appointments, likely subjecting those people to ICE enforcement actions when they come in. @zoeschiffer.bsky.social, @telliotter.bsky.social, & @leahfeiger.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/social...

13.02.2026 20:17 πŸ‘ 134 πŸ” 91 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 10

I just... can't believe... they wrote that... to their staff?!

13.02.2026 15:05 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash Flock off

Coincidentally, surveillance backlash is my DJ name.

12.02.2026 23:18 πŸ‘ 481 πŸ” 110 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 8
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Epstein Could Have Made $100 Million On A Secret Police Tech Investment Former Israel prime minister Ehud Barak helped the convicted sex trafficker quietly invest $1 million in a police tech startup in 2015. Its founder said the company, which is set to be acquired by Axo...

🚨NEW🚨 Epstein could've made $$$ off his investment in a police tech startup then valued at $4.5m.

The startup says it never knew of his involvement, concealed by Ehud Barak, former Israel PM.

The company is about to sell for Axon for $625 million.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

10.02.2026 18:35 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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How Jeffrey Epstein Manipulated Google Search To Bury His Past Using a mix of search engine experts and β€œhackers,” Epstein sought to promote his philanthropy so he could bury negative news about his sex trafficking.

🚨NEW🚨 Epstein paid tens of thousands to a search engine expert to promote his philanthropy and bury negative news on Google Search about his sex trafficking.

That included getting a positive story in Forbes.

First insight into how that all happened here.

www.forbes.com/sites/the-wi...

10.02.2026 19:52 πŸ‘ 101 πŸ” 68 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 4

Maybe this is also why he went to DEF CON to scout for hacking talent

10.02.2026 20:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
How Jeffrey Epstein Manipulated Google Search To Bury His Past Using a mix of search engine experts and β€œhackers,” Epstein sought to promote his philanthropy so he could bury negative news about his sex trafficking.

🚨NEW🚨 Epstein paid tens of thousands to a search engine expert to promote his philanthropy and bury negative news on Google Search about his sex trafficking.

That included getting a positive story in Forbes.

First insight into how that all happened here.

www.forbes.com/sites/the-wi...

10.02.2026 19:52 πŸ‘ 101 πŸ” 68 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 4

Barak also promoted an Amazon Alexa-hacking startup called Toka to Epstein and asked him to pass it on to his government contacts...

10.02.2026 18:36 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Epstein Could Have Made $100 Million On A Secret Police Tech Investment Former Israel prime minister Ehud Barak helped the convicted sex trafficker quietly invest $1 million in a police tech startup in 2015. Its founder said the company, which is set to be acquired by Axo...

🚨NEW🚨 Epstein could've made $$$ off his investment in a police tech startup then valued at $4.5m.

The startup says it never knew of his involvement, concealed by Ehud Barak, former Israel PM.

The company is about to sell for Axon for $625 million.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

10.02.2026 18:35 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1