The FBI together with a coalition of worldwide regulation enforcement companies seized the infamous cybercrime discussion board BreachForums on Wednesday.
For years, BreachForums has been a preferred English-language discussion board for hackers and cybercriminals who wished to promote, promote, and commerce stolen knowledge. Only in the near past, a risk actor marketed Dell prospects’ private info and knowledge stolen from a Europol portal.
BreachForums has confirmed resilient. Final yr, authorities seized a earlier model of the positioning, three months after arresting its administrator, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka pompompurin. After that, somebody going by the net deal with Baphomet took over and re-established the positioning, which had three totally different domains during the last yr, based on the FBI.
When reached by TechCrunch for remark, FBI spokesperson Samantha Shero declined to remark. Division of Justice spokesperson Joshua Stueve additionally declined to remark.
Not like the earlier web site seizure, this time the feds additionally took management of the discussion board’s official Telegram channel, in addition to the channel of one of many web site’s directors, Baphomet.
Each Telegram channels displayed the identical message from the FBI, asserting it took management and that it was “reviewing the site’s backend data.”
“If you have information to report about cyber criminal activity on BreachForums, please contact us,” the message concluded, with a hyperlink to a devoted FBI web site the place victims and members of the discussion board can ship the feds details about the previous cybercrime discussion board.
“From June 2023 until May 2024, BreachForums (hosted at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and run by ShinyHunters) was operating as a clear-net marketplace for cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade contraband, including stolen access devices, means of identification, hacking tools, breached databases, and other illegal services,” the FBI wrote on the web site.
ShinyHunters, one other BreachForums administrator, didn’t return a Telegram message requesting remark.
At this level, it’s unclear how the authorities took management of the Telegram channels. One risk is that the FBI arrested Baphomet and took management of his gadgets, or that Telegram responded to a authorized order from the authorities.
Telegram didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Fitzpatrick, the earlier BreachForums administrator, pleaded responsible to federal expenses final July.
UPDATE, Might 15 4:49 p.m. ET: This story has been up to date so as to add the FBI’s no remark.
