It looks like hackers will need another place to hang out.
The founder of BreachForums appeared in federal district court in Virginia on March 24 on charges that he created and administrated a major hacking forum and marketplace for cybercriminals.
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Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, 20, of Peekskill, New York, allegedly operated BreachForums as a marketplace for cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade hacked or stolen data and other contraband since March 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The forum gained greater notoriety this month when a hacker posted data they claimed was stolen from a DC health insurance service, CNN reported. House of Representatives officials have said hundreds of staff were affected by the incident.
Among the stolen items commonly sold on the platform were bank account information, social security numbers, other personally identifying information, means of identification, hacking tools, breached databases, services for gaining unauthorized access to victim systems, and account login information for compromised online accounts with service providers and merchants.
Dismantling Cybercrime Ecosystem
Fitzpatrick was charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The hacking forum claimed to have more than 340,000 members as of last week. The FBI and Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General conducted a disruption operation that caused BreachForums to go offline, the Justice Department said.
“Today, we continue our work to dismantle key players in the cybercrime ecosystem,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said in a statement. “Like its predecessor RaidForums, which we took down almost a year ago."
"BreachForums bridged the gap between hackers hawking pilfered data and buyers eager to exploit it," she added.
Fitzpatrick’s alleged victims have included millions of U.S. citizens and hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies, organizations, and government agencies, the government said.
Some of the stolen datasets contained the sensitive information of customers at telecommunication, social media, investment, health care services, and internet service providers.
Officials said that on Jan. 4, a BreachForums user posted the names and contact information for about 200 million users of a major U.S.-based social networking site.
On Dec. 18, 2022, another BreachForums user posted details of roughly 87,760 members of InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and private sector companies focused on the protection of critical infrastructure.
Operating a 'Leaks Market'
Fitzpatrick allegedly supported the activities of cybercriminals by creating and operating a “Leaks Market” subsection that was dedicated to buying and selling hacked or stolen data, tools for committing cybercrime, and other illicit material.
To facilitate transactions on the forum, Fitzpatrick allegedly offered to act as a trusted middleman, or escrow service, between individuals on the website who sought to conduct these types of illicit transactions.
In addition, Fitzpatrick allegedly managed an “Official” databases section through which BreachForums directly sold access to verified hacked databases through a “credits” system administered by the platform
The BreachForums website supported additional sections where users discuss tools and techniques for hacking and exploiting hacked or stolen information, including in the “Cracking,” “Leaks,” and “Tutorials” sections.
The BreachForums website also includes a “Staff” section that appears to be operated by the BreachForums administrators and moderators.
Fitzpatrick’s arrest comes nearly a year after officials announced the seizure of the hacking marketplace, Raidforums, and unsealed criminal charges against RaidForums’ founder and chief administrator, Diogo Santos Coelho, who is the subject of extradition proceedings in the United Kingdom
More than $10 billion in losses from online scams were reported to the FBI in 2022, the highest annual loss in the last five years, according to the agency’s annual Internet Crime Report.
