The Epstein Files Reveal Stunning Operational Security Fails

Plaintext Emails Trigger Police Probes Into Potential Leaks of State Secrets Mathew J. Schwartz (euroinfosec) • February 12, 2026

A trove of documents connected to American financier Jeffrey Epstein published by the U.S. Department of Justice show that the rich and powerful who orbited the now-deceased convicted child sex offender practiced horrible operational security.

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The recently released "Epstein files" suggest that King Charles III's younger brother, formerly known as Prince Andrew, and Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown's government, separately emailed confidential government documents to Epstein.

It's "hard to know if it was ignorance or arrogance" that led the men to rely on unencrypted email for sharing confidential information, cybercrime expert Alan Woodward said of the apparent "poor OPSEC ...