BreachForums Website Shuts Down Following Arrest of Site Administrator

Category: Threat Actor Activity | Industry: Global | Level: Strategic | Source: The Record

Following the arrest of BreachForums' administrator, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick aka “Pompompurin,” the new administrator of the cybercrime website announced the site will be shut down. The new site administrator under the account “Baphomet" seemed to have goals of retaining the site when news of the arrest broke on Wednesday, March 15th, 2023. However, in a letter to site members, Baphomet expressed concerns law enforcement may have obtained access to the site's infrastructure since a login was recorded on March 19th, which came after Pompompurin had been arrested. As stated in the letter any "servers we use are never shared with anyone else, so someone would have to know the credentials to that server to be able to login. I now feel like I'm put into a position where nothing can be assumed safe, whether it's our configs, source code, or information about our users - the list is endless." While the cybercrime site is shutting down, Baphomet appears to desire a continued role in cybercrime as Baphomet intends to direct the domains of the website to a new one while continuing to operate a Telegram channel. In addition, Baphomet mentions a support network from “some of the competitor forum admins and various service operators" who are interested in creating a new community "that will have the best features of Breached, while reducing the attack surfaces, we never properly addressed."

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