The FBI, along with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies, seized notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums on Wednesday.
For years, BreachForums has been a popular English language forum for hackers and cyber criminals who wanted to advertise, sell, and trade stolen data. Just now, A threat actor advertised the personal information of Dell customers And Data stolen from Europol portal,
BreachForums has proven resilient. Last year, Authorities seized previous version of the sitethree months after arresting its administrator, Connor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka Pompompurin. Then, according to the FBI, someone going by the online handle Baphomet took over and reestablished the site, which had three different domains over the past year.
When TechCrunch reached out for comment, FBI spokeswoman Samantha Shero declined to comment. Justice Department spokesman Joshua Stueve also declined to comment.
Unlike previous site seizures, this time the feds took control of the forum’s official Telegram channel as well as the channel of Baphomet, one of the site’s administrators.
Both Telegram channels displayed the same message from the FBI, announcing that it had taken control and was “reviewing the site’s backend data.”
“If you have information to report about cybercriminal activity on BreachForum, please contact us,” the message concluded. Link to a dedicated FBI website Where victims and forum members can send information to the feds about the former cyber crime forum.
“From June 2023 to May 2024, BreachForums (hosted at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and operated by ShinyHunters) will provide a clear-cut way for cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade prohibited content, including piracy. The net was functioning as a marketplace. Access devices, means of identification, hacking tools, breached databases and other illegal services, the FBI wrote on the website.
ShinyHunters, another administrator of BreachForums, did not return a Telegram message requesting comment.
At this point, it is unclear how authorities took control of the Telegram channels. One possibility is that the FBI arrested Baphomet and took control of its devices, or that Telegram responded to a legal order from authorities.
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
Fitzpatrick, previous BreachForums administrator, Indicted on federal charges last July,
UPDATE, May 15 4:49 PM ET: This story has been updated to add the FBI’s ‘no comment’.
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