A New York man accused of running the popular cybercrime forum BreachForums was recently arrested and charged. He is believed to be Pompompurin, an individual whose online moniker was mentioned in several high-profile hacking stories in the past years. It is sad to know that this criminal used the name Pompompurin, which is the name of a good natured Golden Retriever dog character introduced by the Japanese company Sanrio (Hello Kitty) in 1996. The suspect is 21-year-old Conor Brian Fitzpatrick who goes by the alias Baphomet of Peekskill, New York. According to court documents filed, he was arrested on 15 March 2023 on conspiracy to commit access device fraud (i.e. hacking) charges.
Testimony from an FBI agent revealed that when he was arrested, Fitzpatrick admitted using the Pompompurin moniker online and being the owner and administrator of BreachForums.
US Attorney's Office Press Release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-arrest-founder-one-world-s-largest-hacker-forums-and-disruption
Bloomberg reported that Fitzpatrick was released on bail, with his next federal court appearance scheduled for 24 March 2023. In a statement made on the official Telegram channel of Breach Forums on 21 March 2023, Fitzpatrick/Baphomet has announced the permanent shutdown of the forum. In a statement, Baphomet apologized to forum users for any inconvenience and emphasized that their decision was made for the betterment and safety of everyone. Fitzpatrick/Baphomet plans to start a new Breach Forums-like community in the near future. However, for now, all forum domains will be redirected to a website owned by Baphomet.
BreachForums, also known as Breached, was launched in 2022, just as the RaidForums cybercrime marketplace was taken down as part of a global law enforcement operation. Pompompurin created BreachForums as an alternative to RaidForums. BreachForums was hosted on the surface web, with much of the information on the site being accessible to anyone.
See: https://redskyalliance.org/xindustry/twitter-hack
The website is now inaccessible. Before it went offline, one of the forum’s other administrators posted a message saying that he had the access necessary to protect the site’s infrastructure and users. He claimed that he had restricted Pompompurin’s account to prevent unauthorized administrator actions and that he had been keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.
Many BreachForums users expressed concerns that their information may have been obtained by law enforcement. Just before it was taken offline, the forum had more than 330,000 members, 47,000 threads, and nearly one million posts. BreachForums was used in the past months to announce several high-profile cyberattacks, including the recent DC Health Link breach, which involved the sensitive personal data of members of the US House and Senate getting compromised.
As for Pompompurin, he often vouched for the data being sold on BreachForums and even offered data for sale himself. In 2021, Pompompurin took credit for an attack where thousands of fake emails were sent from an FBI email address through the exploitation of a vulnerability in a law enforcement portal.
Source: https://www.securityweek.com/new-york-man-arrested-for-running-breachforums-cybercrime-forum/
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