BreachForums, the infamous hacking forum that was reportedly taken offline by authorities earlier this month, is apparently back online and ready to serve customers.
Multiple reports claim that the site has returned to both the dark web and the clearnet, apparently under the control of ShinyHunters, formerly one of the forum's senior administrators.
As a successor to RaidForums (attacked and shut down in 2015), BreachForums was created to help hackers easily share malware, stolen data, and other warez. The FBI first struck in March 2023, when its owner and super manager at the time, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, was arrested and later sentenced to 20 years of supervised release.
NiceNIC returns the domains
Earlier this month, the FBI attacked the site once again, this time apparently in a more severe manner, as the site was defaced to display a message saying it had been taken over by law enforcement.
“This website has been taken down by the FBI and the Department of Justice with the help of international partners,” the site said at the time. “We are reviewing the backend data of this site. If you have information to report about cybercrime activity on BreachForums, please contact us.”
The site also showed its two key administrators, alias Baphomet and ShinyHunters, arrested. It was later confirmed that Baphomet was indeed detained and his Telegram account was also confiscated.
ShinyHunters, on the other hand, boasted that none of its members were arrested and that it planned to restart the site quickly.
Very soon, the site was back up and running, but interestingly, with the same domains. According RegisterShinyHunters managed to regain access to the criminal marketplace site, by kindly asking NiceNIC, the Hong Kong-based domain registrar that supplies the domains.
Among the broader cybersecurity community, the FBI's loss of control of domains is perceived as a major fiasco for the law enforcement agency.
