NEW: An alleged ransomware attack has taken the computer systems of one of the largest universities in Europe offline for three days.

La Sapienza university in Rome is still working to restore the systems, and an Italian newpaper reported that the hackers behind the attack are a new ransomware gang called Femwar02.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/one-of-europes-largest-universities-knocked-offline-for-days-after-cyberattack/

I wrote a story about how Homeland Security is using administrative subpoenas, which aren't subject to judicial oversight, to seek data from tech giants about Trump critics and anonymous accounts of ICE trackers. Features some really great reporting by Bloomberg & Washington Post.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/03/homeland-security-is-trying-to-force-tech-companies-to-hand-over-data-about-trump-critics/

The US government is shut down again. I mention this only because if some place like Canada were to come down and run things, we could certainly use the help.

We’ll leave the door unlocked.

Here's our 25-min video news-documentary version of the story of Red Bull, the whistleblower who leaked me the secrets of a crypto scam compound while trapped as a forced laborer inside it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOcNaWmmn0A&t=1s

Hope you'll watch and consider the immense scale of this global crisis.

NEW: An informant told the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein had a "personal hacker," according to a document released today.

The document does not name the hacker, but says he is Italian, developed and sold zero-days (iOS and Blackberry) to governments such as the U.K. and the United States, and even Hezbollah, which paid him with “a trunk of cash.”

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/informant-told-fbi-that-jeffrey-epstein-had-a-personal-hacker/

RE: https://mastodon.social/@lawfare/115986309781200002

@mattblaze Lawfare got the warrant for the FBI raid, signed by Judge Catherine Salinas.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26513986-1-28-26-fulton-warrant/#document/p1