According to reports, the alleged owner and super administrator of the underground hacking forum BreachForums has been arrested.
The FBI arrested a person named Conor Brian FitzPatrick, who confirmed to law enforcement that he used the alias Pompompurin – the owner and administrator of BreachForums.
“When I arrested the defendant on March 15, 2023, he stated to me essentially and in part that: a) his name was Conor Brian FitzPatrick; b) uses the pseudonym “Pompompurin” and c) is the owner and administrator of “BreachForums”, the website to which the data breach alleges in the complaint relates, said FBI Special Agent John Longmire.
Sale of unauthorized access devices
According to a statement from Pompompurin, FitzPatrick was charged with “one count of conspiracy to solicit individuals to sell unauthorized access devices.”
The suspect was released on $300,000 bail and is expected to appear in District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia later this week.
By then, he had surrendered his papers and was only allowed to travel within the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Eastern District of Virginia in preparation for his trial. He is also said to be barred from contacting witnesses, co-defendants or co-conspirators, although no other names have been mentioned.
BreachForums is probably one of the most popular hacking forums today. Whenever cybercriminals target business networks or endpoints, or manage to steal sensitive data, they post it on BreachForums, often trying to sell the loot, and sometimes just to brag.
For example, data stolen in the Shanghai Covid app hack last summer went up for sale on a forum, and a cybercriminal named XJP touted a database containing sensitive information about 48.5 million users. In a separate incident also last summer, a cybercriminal demanded $30,000 in exchange for thousands of Twitter accounts.
By: Beeping Computer (opens in a new tab)