The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week arrested a New York man on suspicion of working BreachForums, a preferred English-language cybercrime discussion board the place among the world largest hacked databases routinely first present up on the market. The discussion board’s administrator “Pompompurin” has been a thorn within the facet of the FBI for years, and BreachForums is broadly thought-about a reincarnation of RaidForums, a remarkably related crime discussion board that the FBI infiltrated and dismantled in 2022.
FBI brokers carting objects out of Fitzpatrick’s residence on March 15. Picture: Information 12 Westchester.
In an affidavit filed with the District Court docket for the Southern District of New York, FBI Particular Agent John Langmire stated that at round 4:30 p.m. on March 15, 2023, he led a staff of legislation enforcement brokers that made a possible trigger arrest of a Conor Brian Fitzpatrick in Peekskill, NY.
“After I arrested the defendant on March 15, 2023, he said to me in substance and partially that: a) his identify was Conor Brian Fitzpatrick; b) he used the alias ‘pompompurin/’ and c) he was the proprietor and administrator of ‘BreachForums the info breach web site referenced within the Grievance,” Langmire wrote.
Pompompurin has been one thing of a nemesis to the FBI for a number of years. In November 2021, KrebsOnSecurity broke the information that hundreds of pretend emails a few cybercrime investigation had been blasted out from the FBI’s electronic mail programs and Web addresses.
Pompompurin took credit score for that stunt, and stated he was capable of ship the FBI electronic mail blast by exploiting a flaw in an FBI portal designed to share data with state and native legislation enforcement authorities. The FBI later acknowledged {that a} software program misconfiguration allowed somebody to ship the pretend emails.
In December, 2022, KrebsOnSecurity broke the information that hackers lively on BreachForums had infiltrated the FBI’s InfraGard program, a vetted FBI program designed to construct cyber and bodily menace data sharing partnerships with specialists within the non-public sector. The hackers impersonated the CEO of a serious monetary firm, utilized for InfraGard membership within the CEO’s identify, and had been granted admission to the group.
From there, the hackers plundered the InfraGard member database, and proceeded to promote contact data on greater than 80,000 InfraGard members in an public sale on BreachForums. The FBI responded by disabling the portal for a while, earlier than in the end forcing all InfraGard members to re-apply for membership.
Extra just lately, BreachForums was the gross sales discussion board for knowledge stolen from DC Well being Hyperlink, a medical health insurance alternate based mostly in Washington, D.C. that suffered an information breach this month. The gross sales thread initially stated the info included the names, Social Safety numbers, dates of beginning, well being plan and enrollee data and extra on 170,000 people, though the official discover in regards to the breach says 56,415 individuals had been affected within the DC Well being Hyperlink breach.
In April 2022, U.S. Justice Division seized the servers and domains for RaidForums, an especially fashionable English-language cybercrime discussion board that offered entry to greater than 10 billion shopper data stolen in among the world’s largest knowledge breaches since 2015. As a part of that operation, the feds additionally charged the alleged administrator, 21-year-old Diogo Santos Coelho of Portugal, with six prison counts.
Coelho was arrested in the UK on Jan. 31, 2022. By that point, the brand new BreachForums had been stay for slightly below per week, however with a well-known look.
BreachForums stays accessible on-line, and from reviewing the stay chat stream on the positioning’s residence web page it seems the discussion board’s lively customers are solely simply turning into conscious that their administrator — and the positioning’s database — is probably going now in FBI palms:
Members of BreachForums focus on the arrest of the discussion board’s alleged proprietor.
“Wait in the event that they arrested pom then doesn’t the FBI have all of our particulars we’ve registered with?” requested one anxious BreachForums member.
“However all of us have good VPNs I suppose, proper…proper guys?” one other denizen supplied.
“Like pom would most certainly do a plea cut price and cooperate with the feds as a lot as attainable,” replied one other.
Fitzpatrick couldn’t be instantly reached for remark. The FBI declined to remark for this story.
There is just one web page to the prison grievance towards Fitzpatrick (PDF), which prices him with one rely of conspiracy to commit entry system fraud. The affidavit on his arrest is obtainable right here (PDF).
