Last week, the FBI arrested a man alleged to be “Pompompurin,” the administrator of the infamous and popular BreachForums, TechCrunch reported. Days after the arrest, the cybercrime website’s new administrator announced that they are shutting down the forum for good.
“Please consider this the final update for Breached,” the new admin, known as “Baphomet,” wrote in the official Telegram channel. “I will be taking down the forum, as I believe we can assume that nothing is safe anymore. I know that everyone wants the forum up, but there is no value in short term gain for what will likely be a long term loss by propping up Breached as it is.”
The new administrator Baphomet did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
According to TechCrunch, the apparent end of BreachForums comes roughly a year after a coalition of international law enforcement agencies led by the U.S. Department of Justice seized RaidForums, another notorious cybercrime forum where hacked databases would be advertised and sold. BreachForums was born in the aftermath of RaidForums’ demise, and served pretty much the same purpose and audience.
The Record reported that a hacker going by the name “Baphomet” initially said they were working through an emergency plan for the forum after the arrest of 21-year-old Conor Brian Fitzpatrick at his home last Wednesday. In court documents, Fitzpatrick is alleged to be the hacker known as pompompurin – the leading administrator of BreachForums.
The Record also reported an update was posted on Tuesday, the new administrator taking over BreachForums said they now plan to shut down the platform entirely.
Baphomet wrote that someone was able to access the backend of the platform through pompompurin’s account on Sunday afternoon, leading them to believe law enforcement may have access to the site’s source code and information about the forum’s users.
According to The Record, Bahomet wrote: “This will be my final update on Breached, as I’ve decided to shut it down. I’m aware this news will not please anyone, but its the only safe decision now that I’ve confirmed that the glowies likely have access to Poms machine,” the hacker said.
The Record also reported that BreachForums became the go-to site for cybercriminals stolen data and market troves of information leaked during hacks and attacks. The forum was most recently in the news after hackers posted data stolen from Washington, D.C’s healthcare exchange platform on the site, including the sensitive information of Congress members and staff.
CNBC reported on March 21, at least 17 current or former members of Congress had personal information exposed in the hack of the District of Columbia health insurance data system, according to a top Democrat investigating the matter. And that number is expected to rise, he said. According to multiple reports, the breach might have impacted more than 56,000 people.
In my opinion, hackers cause problems for everyone – including themselves. They run the risk of going to jail due to their decision to grab data that does not belong to them. It is good that BreachForums is going down.