BreachForums is the successor to RaidForums, a site that was seized in operation “TOURNIQUET” in a complex law enforcement effort that led to the forum’s administrator and two of his accomplices being arrested.
Like its predecessor, BreachForums specializes in trading leaked databases and other cybercrime, with its users sharing exploits, tips, and tools. Also like RaidForums, BreachForums has run into trouble with law enforcement.
The forum was temporarily shut down in March 2023 following the arrest of one of its administrators, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (alias pompompurin). Another one of the forum’s operators, alias Baphomet, quickly started to signal that the forum would continue in some form and in June 2023 the forum re-emerged. While its new iteration is mostly staffed by veteran BreachForums administrators and moderators, one notable difference is ownership of the forum belonging to ShinyHunters, a hacking collective responsible for numerous high-profile breaches since 2020 including Tokopedia, Wattpad, and Animal Jam.
After an initial difficult period (including database theft and leak by rival forum, suspicion of being a fed honeypot, and unreliable uptime) the latest iteration of BreachForums has now reclaimed its position as the top forum for leaked database trading. Much of the userbase has turned against the previous administrator pompompurin after the charges against him included child pornography possession.
update may 2024
Once again, BreachForums has gone through a cycle of disappearing and re-appearing. On Wednesday May 15, popular hacking and data leaks forum was seized by the FBI. The site’s clear web and dark web domains showed a seizure notice, and its Telegram groups displayed a message warning that they were now under the control of the FBI.
However, just two weeks later the forum returned, with its admins regaining control of its clear web domain and starting a new dark web site. One of the admins of the forum, ShinyHunters, has since posted an advertisement on the forum for an alleged database of 560m Ticketmaster customers – including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers, and details from ticket sales. Some experts have speculated that the dataset (being sold for $500k) may be a PR stunt to boost the forum as it tries to revive its reputation.
update july 2024
The actor ShinyHunters decided to step down from leading the forum and announced the new owner, actor Anastasia. However, the change wasn’t well received by the community, with the new owner being bombarded with negative reputation points. The community, citing the new owner’s lack of implication and prolonged absence, awarded Anastasia a negative reputation score of 1,150 points as of July 2024. The removal of the Escrow service did not stop the community from trading and engaging on the marketplace as usual. The notorious actor IntelBroker, who is now also a forum moderator, continues to sell access and data from entities such as the U.S. Army, Apple, Cognizant, AT&T, HSBC, Barclays and many more.
