US federal authorities have seized the domain of the notorious underground hacking BreachForums (Breached.vc), more than three months after the arrest of its alleged administrator Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (aka “Pompompurin”).
Pompompurin, who has been a well-known player in the cybercriminal underground, created BreachForums after the FBI dismantled RaidForums, one of the world’s biggest hacker forums to buy and sell stolen data. In less than 12 months, BreachForums gained popularity with hackers and ransomware gangs and developed into a top cybercriminal website, with 225,000 registered members and 740,000 posts.
Shortly after Pompompurin’s arrest the site’s new admin known as “Baphomet” shut down the platform out of fear that its servers were compromised by police.
In June, a clone of BreachForums was launched reportedly run by a notorious group known as ‘ShinyHunters’ in collaboration with the original moderator team from the original BreachForums. Shortly after the launch, the revived forum suffered a data breach that exposed the personal info of more than 4,000 registered forum members. The data breach was a result of a hack by a rival forum called OnniForums.
US authorities have yet to comment on the Breached.vc seizure. According to the seizure notice, the FBI worked with agencies including the Dutch National Police, the Australian Federal Police, the UK's National Crime Agency and Police Scotland to dismantle the site.