Feds arrest alleged BreachForums owner linked to FBI hacks

The FBI has arrested the individual allegedly in command of the BreachForums on-line hacking neighborhood, as reported earlier by Krebs on Security and Bleeping Computer. Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, additionally identified on-line as “Pompompurin,” was arrested at his New York dwelling on Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to commit entry gadget fraud, in response to a pair of court filings.

In a sworn assertion, the FBI agent concerned within the case claims Fitzpatrick admitted to proudly owning BreachForums on the time of his arrest and recognized himself as Pompompurin. Pompompurin created BreachForums after the FBI seized RaidForums, an analogous hacking website that additionally bought leaked data.

The hacker is implicated in numerous breaches, with lots of them concentrating on the FBI. In 2021, Pompompurin took accountability for a hack that despatched out hundreds of fake cybersecurity warnings from the FBI’s email address, and can also be linked to the breach of Infragard, the FBI’s information-sharing program that goals to lift consciousness about bodily and digital threats to authorities organizations and unbiased firms.

Moreover, Bleeping Laptop notes that Pompompurin is connected to the 2021 Robinhood breach that uncovered the data of hundreds of thousands of its customers, in addition to the leak of Twitter user handles and email addresses that occurred in November 2022.

A current submit on BreachForums signifies that the location will stay up and working beneath new possession — at the least for now. The hacking discussion board has already been concerned in current cyberattacks, including a breach of DC Health Link, a healthcare market utilized by many US politicians and authorities workers members, and the breach of Australian telecommunications company Optus.

Fitzpatrick was launched on a $300,000 bond on Thursday and can seem in a Virginia court docket on March twenty fourth, according to Bloomberg.