This article has been updated to reflect new events as of 3/23/2023.
The FBI has arrested Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, a New York man who is suspected of being the owner and administrator of the BreachForums hacking forum. BreachForums is a forum where hackers buy and sell stolen data. Many of the top breaches and ransomware attacks in the past two years have first been revealed on BreachForums.
The news first broke by Krebs on Security. Fitzpatrick was arrested at his home on Wednesday, March 16, 2023. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud according to court documents.
In a sworn affidavit, FBI agent John Longmire said that Fitzpatrick admitted to owning BreachForums and to being the administrator of the forum. The agent also said that Fitzpatrick admitted to hacking into the FBI’s email server and sending out thousands of fake cybersecurity warnings.
“When I arrested the defendant on March 15, 2023, he stated to me in substance and in part that: a) his name was Conor Brian FitzPatrick; b) he used the alias “pompourin,” and c) he was the owner and administrator of “BreachForums,” the data breach website referenced in the Complaint,” FBI Special Agent Longmire says in the court document.
BreachForums remains online at the time of this posting. Other forum administrators claim to maintain access and control of the website infrastructure. However, it is likely that the FBI at a minimum has access to the forum database and other administrator identities.
Fitzpatrick is linked to the 2022 breach of the FBI’s InfraGard network, an incident that saw the contact information of its more than 80,000 members go on sale. Separately, Fitzpatrick is connected to the 2021 Robinhood hack that saw the data of 7 million users compromised, and the 2022 Twitter data leak.
Fitzpatrick was released on Thursday on a $300,000 bond and will appear in the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia on March 24, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Will the FBI’s arrest of Pompompurin make an impact?
The FBI’s arrest of Fitzpatrick is a significant development in the fight against cybercrime. BreachForums is a major hub for the sale of stolen data, and Fitzpatrick’s arrest will likely have a significant impact on the cybercriminal community.
However, it is important to note that Fitzpatrick is only one person, and that there are many other cybercriminals who are still operating. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies will need to continue to work hard to investigate and prosecute these criminals in order to make the internet a safer place for everyone.
Other BreachForums administrators when they got word Pompompurin was arrested were already anticipating the inevitable: they’re next.
“Wait if they arrested pom then doesn’t the FBI have all of our details we’ve registered with?” asked one worried BreachForums member.
“But we all have good VPNs I guess, right…right guys?” another user offered.
The FBI has declined to comment, according to Krebs on Security.
Update: BreachForums closes after FBI arrests Pompompurin
Any remaining administrators of BreachForums mutually agreed to completely shut down BreachForums after they concluded that the computer of Pompompurin had been accessed by the FBI.
Co-administrators noticed that someone from Pompompurin’s computer had accessed the BreachForums site infrastructure, leading them to conclude that there was no way to keep the website online for fear of being arrested themselves.
It is not clear whether the FBI will pursue charges or arrests against other BreachForums administrators.
A final update was posted by co-administrator Baphomet, declaring that the site is “not safe anymore.”
This may mean the end of BreachForums, but this is in no way the end of illicit, hacked data for sale and purchase by nefarious actors. BreachForums itself was a spinoff from an original web forum named RaidForum which operated until April 2022.
