Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

@[email protected]
8.6K Followers
1.8K Following
1.2K Posts

Real-time cyber historian of the late capitalist era @TechCrunch, writing about the intersection of hackers, human rights, and spies.

Also writing a book about Hacking Team and the history of government spyware.

Posts about infosec, surveillance by day. 🍕, ⚽️, 🎸, 🎮 by night. 


☎️ Signal: +1 917 257 1382

💻 Keybase/Telegram: @ lorenzofb

✉️ [email protected]


Previously: VICE Motherboard, Mashable, WIRED's Danger Room.

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/lorenzofb
Personal Sitehttps://lorenzofb.com
PronounsHe/him
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TechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/author/lorenzo-franceschi-bicchierai/
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai1d ago
As a journalist, every day, you have to ask tough questions.
Show threadLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiMar 27

UPDATE: The FBI has confirmed the hack of director Kash Patel's personal gmail account, says the leaked data "is historical in nature and involves no government information."

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/27/iranian-hackers-claim-breach-of-fbi-director-kash-patels-personal-email-account/

Show threadLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiMar 26

A former Trenchant employee told us that when Triangulation was first revealed, other employees at the company believed that at least one of the zero-days caught by Kaspersky “were from us."

Also both Kaspersky and Trenchant seemed to wink at the fact that they both knew.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/10/us-military-contractor-likely-built-iphone-hacking-tools-used-by-russian-spies-in-ukraine/

Lorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiMar 4

NSO Group has spent at least $7.6 million to lobby in Washington D.C., according to this report.

And it's gonna continue to pressure the U.S. government to get removed from the blocklist it was put on in 2021, in an attempt to get into the U.S. market.

NSO has hired a lot of people for its lobbying efforts.

https://www.techpolicy.press/will-nsos-us-lobbying-pay-off-under-trump/

Show threadLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiFeb 12

Here's an email exchange between Iozzo and an Epstein assistant, where Iozzo sets up an in person meeting.

This exchange happened after the Miami Herald started publishing stories with new revelations about Epstein abusing several underage girls.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/12/hacker-linked-to-epstein-removed-from-black-hat-cyber-conference-website

Lorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiJan 20

Last year, a member of the Spanish parliament sent a letter to the government asking what it thinks about the fact that there are several Israeli offensive cybersecurity folks in Barcelona working on spyware, and whether the government wants to do anything about it.

https://www.congreso.es/entradap/l15p/e5/e_0053286_n_000.pdf

The government answered that the Ministry of Defense has no information at all about the issues raised in the letter.

https://www.congreso.es/entradap/l15p/e5/e_0057785_n_000.pdf

Lorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiJan 12
This always works.
Show threadLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiJan 8
This is one interesting detail in the report. I think here NSO suggests that they procure zero-days from outside researchers or brokers.
Show threadLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiJan 8

As of 18:45 UTC (1:45 pm ET/10:15 Tehran time) the internet has dropped to zero in Iran, according to Kertik.

(Chart via @dougmadory)

Lorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiDec 23
What's up with all these "secret location" Barcelona offensive cybersecurity conferences?