FBI seizes hacking forum BreachForums — again | TechCrunch – Techcrunch

The FBI on the side of a coalition of world law enforcement agencies seized the notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums on Wednesday.

For years, BreachForums has been a accepted English-language forum for hackers and cybercriminals who wished to promote, promote and alternate stolen data. Factual recently, a threat actor marketed Dell customers’ deepest data and data stolen from a Europol portal.

BreachForums has confirmed resilient. Final Twelve months, authorities seized a previous version of the positioning, three months after piquant its administrator, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka pompompurin. After that, any individual going by the on-line take care of Baphomet took over and re-established the positioning, which had three assorted domains over the closing Twelve months, in step with the FBI.

When reached by TechCrunch for comment, FBI spokesperson Samantha Shero declined to comment. Department of Justice spokesperson Joshua Stueve furthermore declined to comment.

Unlike the previous put seizure, this time the feds furthermore took control of the forum’s reliable Telegram channel, besides to the channel of actually appropriate among the positioning’s directors, Baphomet.

Both Telegram channels displayed the an identical message from the FBI, asserting it took control and that it became “reviewing the positioning’s backend data.”

“Within the occasion you can catch gotten data to file about cyber legal exercise on BreachForums, please contact us,” the message concluded, with a hyperlink to a dedicated FBI internet put the put aside victims and contributors of the forum can ship the feds data referring to the previous-fashioned cybercrime forum.

“From June 2023 till Could well well also merely 2024, BreachForums (hosted at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and slump by ShinyHunters) became working as a clear-catch market for cybercriminals to purchase, promote, and alternate contraband, at the side of stolen accumulate correct of entry to devices, intention of identification, hacking tools, breached databases, and other illegal services and products,” the FBI wrote on the catch put.

ShinyHunters, one more BreachForums administrator, did no longer return a Telegram message soliciting for comment.

At this point, it’s unclear how the authorities took control of the Telegram channels. One chance is that the FBI arrested Baphomet and took control of his devices, or that Telegram responded to a upright impart from the authorities.

Telegram did no longer reply to a ask for comment.

Fitzpatrick, the previous BreachForums administrator, pleaded guilty to federal costs closing July.

UPDATE, Could well well also merely 15 4:49 p.m. ET: This story has been up to this point so as to add the FBI’s ‘no comment.’