The FBI, together with a coalition of worldwide legislation enforcement companies, took over the infamous cybercrime discussion board BreachForums on Wednesday.
For years, BreachForums has been a preferred English-language discussion board for hackers and cybercriminals trying to promote, promote, and commerce stolen information. Most not too long ago, an attacker marketed private info and information of Dell clients stolen from the Europol portal.
BreachForums has confirmed to be resilient. Final yr, authorities seized an earlier model of the positioning three months after the arrest of its administrator, Connor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka Pompompurin. Afterward, somebody who ran Baphomet on the Web took management and rebuilt the positioning, which had three completely different domains over the previous yr, in accordance with the FBI.
When TechCrunch reached out for remark, FBI spokeswoman Samantha Shero declined to remark. Justice Division spokesman Joshua Stueve additionally declined to remark.
Not like the earlier takeover of the positioning, this time the feds additionally took management of the discussion board’s official Telegram channel, in addition to the channel of one of many directors of the Baphomet web site.
Each Telegram channels confirmed the identical message from the FBI, asserting that it had taken management and that it was “reviewing the positioning’s backend information.”
“When you have info to report about cybercriminal exercise on BreachForums, please contact us,” the message concluded, linking to a devoted FBI web site the place victims and discussion board individuals can submit info to federal authorities in regards to the former cybercrime discussion board. .
“From June 2023 to Might 2024, BreachForums (positioned at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and operated by ShinyHunters) operated as an open market for cybercriminals to purchase, promote, and commerce contraband, together with stolen . entry units, technique of identification, hacking instruments, hacked databases and different unlawful providers,” the FBI writes on its web site.
ShinyHunters, one other BreachForums administrator, didn’t return a Telegram message looking for remark.
For the time being, it’s unclear how the authorities took management of the Telegram channels. One chance is that the FBI arrested Baphomet and took management of his units, or Telegram responded to a respectable order from the authorities.
Telegram didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Fitzpatrick, the earlier administrator of BreachForums, pleaded responsible to federal fees final July.
UPDATE, Might 15, 4:49 PM ET: This story has been up to date so as to add “no remark” by the FBI.
