The seizure comes two days after IntelBroker, a distinguished hacker on BreachForums, put up on the market some categorized knowledge stolen from one in all Europol’s web sites.
The FBI’s declare that it’s reviewing the hacking discussion board’s backend knowledge is elevating hypothesis relating to its possession of discussion board members’ e mail addresses, IP addresses, and personal messages.
“Whereas particulars are sparse right now, customers of the location will possible have vital considerations over their very own operational security, with the FBI possible in possession of fabric that could possibly be used to offer attribution of members,” mentioned Michael McPherson, a former FBI particular agent and now senior vp of safety operations at ReliaQuest. “Organizations named on BreachForums additionally could also be supplied with extra context over materials breached on the discussion board,” he mentioned.
Seized for the second time
That is BreachForums’ second takedown inside a yr, the primary being in June 2023 following the arrest of then admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (aka Pompompurin) in March 2023.
After the arrest, the discussion board went into full possession of the second admin on the time, Baphomet, who shut it down shortly after on suspicions that it had been compromised by authorities. That very same month Baphomet partnered with the hacking group ShinyHunters, to reopen BreachForums on a unique area.
“Whereas it’s attainable that the ShinyHunters group — who’ve facilitated the restoration of BreachForums after its preliminary takedown in 2023 — could try to revive their companies, there’ll naturally be suspicions over regulation enforcement compromise; this was a sentiment noticed on many cybercriminal websites within the aftermath of LE ops concentrating on ransomware teams, together with Lockbit,” McPherson mentioned.
