Def Con, one of the largest and longest-running hacking conferences in the world, announced on Wednesday that three people linked to Jeffrey Epstein are no longer allowed to attend.
The conference justified adding Pablos Holman, Vincenzo Iozzo, and Joichi Ito to its public list of banned individuals, citing the three as appearing in the Department of Justice’s latest release of files related to its investigation of the late investor and convicted sex offender. Def Con also cited an article in Politico based on emails that the three exchanged with Epstein.
Joan Vollero, a spokesperson for Iozzo, told TechCrunch in a statement that Def Con’s actions are “entirely performative, given that Mr. Iozzo has barely attended the conference in the past twenty years.”
“It was a rush to judgment not based on any investigation or wrongdoing by Mr. Iozzo,” the spokesperson said.
Representatives for Def Con, Holman, and Ito did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
The move to ban the three comes days after TechCrunch reported that cybersecurity conferences Black Hat and Code Blue removed Iozzo from their official review board pages, amid new and emerging revelations linking the prominent hacker, among others, to Epstein.
Contact Us
Do you have more information about Epstein’s connections in the cybersecurity world?? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or by email.
Iozzo is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry who is currently the founder and chief executive of identity startup SlashID. He previously served as a director at CrowdStrike after the security giant acquired his cybersecurity startup IperLane in 2017. As TechCrunch previously reported, Iozzo interacted with Epstein between 2014 and 2018, including after the Miami Herald reported new allegations that Epstein had abused dozens of women and children.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from girls and registered as a sex offender in New York and Florida. In 2019, the Department of Justice accused …