The FBI, along with an international coalition of law enforcement agencies, seized the notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums on Wednesday.
BreachForums has long been a popular English forum for hackers and cybercriminals who want to advertise, sell, and trade stolen data. Just recently, an attacker advertised that Dell customers' personal information and data had been stolen from Europol's portal.
BreachForums has proven to be resilient. Last year, authorities seized an earlier version of the site three months after arresting its administrator, Connor Brian Fitzpatrick, also known as Pom Pom Purin. The FBI said someone using the online handle “Baphomet” then took over the site and last year relaunched it, which had three different domains.
FBI spokeswoman Samantha Shero declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch. Justice Department spokesman Joshua Stueb also declined to comment.
Unlike previous site seizures, this time federal authorities also took control of the forum's official Telegram channel and the channel of Baphomet, one of the site's administrators.
Both Telegram channels displayed the same message from the FBI, announcing that the agency had taken control and was “investigating the site's backend data.”
“If you have information to report about cybercrime activity on the Breach forum, please contact us,” the message concludes, adding that victims and forum members should submit information about the former cybercrime forum to the federal government. It included a link to a dedicated FBI website where it could be submitted.
Image credit: Telegram
“From June 2023 to May 2024, BreachForums (hosted at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and operated by ShinyHunters) was used by cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade contraband, including stolen goods. “Clearnet operated as a marketplace for access devices, identification methods, hacking tools, compromised databases, and other illegal services,” the FBI wrote on its website.
Another BreachForums administrator, ShinyHunters, did not return a Telegram message seeking comment.
At this time, it is unclear how authorities gained control of the Telegram channel. One possibility is that the FBI arrested Baphomet and took control of his device, or that Telegram was responding to a legal order from authorities.
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
Fitzpatrick, the former administrator of BreachForums, pleaded guilty to federal charges last July.
Update, May 15, 4:49 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to add the FBI's “no comment.”