The U.S. FBI and Department of Justice have seized control of the infamous BreachForums hacking forum, according to a notice on the group’s site.
The notice on the BreachForums site reads that the website was taken down by the FBI and DOJ with assistance from international partners. The notice goes on to state that the site’s backend data is being reviewed and that anyone who has information about cybercriminal activity on BreachForums should contact the FBI or the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The seizure of the site comes after the FBI arrested a New York man in March 2023 on suspicion of running the site. Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, who was known online as “Pompompurin” was sentenced to time served and 20 years of supervised released in January.
Contact information on the seized site includes the email address breachforums@fbi.gov, the Telegram contact fbi_breachforums, the website breachforums.ic3.gov and a QR code to communicate through Tox.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) BreachForums page includes a contact form for breach victims or those with information about BreachForums and its predecessor Raidforums to submit information to authorities.
BreachForums started with an original hacking forum called RaidForums. Founded in 2015, RaidForums members allegedly stole more than 10 billion unique records from individuals residing in the U.S. and internationally. RaidForums was subsequently taken down by the Justice Department in April 2022.
BreachForums appeared not long after the takedown of RaidForums and was essentially the same site reborn along with some of the same administrators. Those administrators included users going by the names of Baphomet and ShinyHunters, both of which have their online profile pictures included in the BreachForum’s takedown image with prison bars super imposed on them.
