Def Con, one of the world’s largest and longest-running hacking conferences, announced Wednesday that three individuals linked to Jeffrey Epstein are no longer permitted to attend the event, marking a significant escalation in how the cybersecurity community is responding to renewed attention on Epstein’s network.
Conference organizers said they added Pablos Holman, Vincenzo Iozzo, and Joichi Ito to their public list of banned individuals after their names appeared in the U.S. Department of Justice’s latest release of investigative files related to Epstein. Def Con also referenced a report by Politico that detailed email exchanges between the men and Epstein.
A spokesperson for Iozzo, Joan Vollero, criticized the decision, calling it “entirely performative” and arguing that Iozzo has rarely attended the conference over the past two decades. The spokesperson added that the move represented a rush to judgment without evidence of wrongdoing. Representatives for Def Con, Holman, and Ito did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ban follows actions by other major cybersecurity gatherings. Black Hat and Code Blue recently removed Iozzo from their official review board listings amid emerging reporting about his past interactions with Epstein.
Iozzo is a longtime figure in cybersecurity and currently serves as founder and chief executive of SlashID. He previously held a leadership role at CrowdStrike after it acquired his earlier venture, IperLane, in 2017. Reports indicate that Iozzo communicated with Epstein between 2014 and 2018, including after renewed allegations of abuse were detailed in investigations reported by the Miami Herald.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from minors and was required to register as a sex offender in New York and Florida. In 2019, federal prosecutors accused him of trafficking and abusing dozens of underage girls. He died in jail later that year while awaiting trial.
Iozzo has previously said his contact with Epstein was limited to discussions about business opportunities and emerging technologies and that he neither observed nor participated in illegal conduct.
Before founding his startups, Iozzo was a research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab, which at the time was directed by Ito. Ito resigned in 2019 from the lab, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after reports revealed he was aware of Epstein’s prior conviction while maintaining institutional and financial ties.
Holman, now a general partner at Deep Future, has described himself publicly as a hacker and technology futurist. Records show he had been in contact with Epstein since 2010, at one point planning to stay at an Epstein-owned apartment in New York and attempting to help manage negative online coverage.
According to emails cited in reports, Epstein once planned to attend Def Con alongside Holman in 2013, though it remains unclear whether either ultimately appeared. Def Con founder Jeff Moss has said that, to his knowledge, Epstein never attended the conference.
