OP 25 March, 2023 - 04:13 AM
(This post was last modified: 25 March, 2023 - 04:15 AM by HIGHTORQUE. Edited 2 times in total.)
Today, the FBI confirmed they have access to the database of the notorious BreachForums (aka Breached) hacking forum after the U.S. Justice Department also officially announced the arrest of its owner.
20-year-old Conor Brian Fitzpatrick (also known as Pompompurin) was charged for his involvement in the theft and sale of sensitive personal information belonging to "millions of U.S. citizens and hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies, organizations, and government agencies" on the Breached cybercrime forum.
Fitzpatrick appeared today in court in the Eastern District of Virginia after being arrested one week ago at home in Peekskill, New York, and released on a $300,000 bond.
FBI now has access to the BreachForums database
In new court documents published this Friday, FBI Special Agent John Longmire revealed that the FBI has the Breached database, which helped establish that Fitzpatrick is indeed Pompompurin as charged, the forum's main admin, based on activity logs and the Optimum Online Internet connection he used (registered using the [email protected] email address).
Fitzpatrick also made it easier for law enforcement to link him to the Pompompurin online handle after he told the **DeadForums** owner in a private conversation that a leaked, stolen database for ai.type didn’t contain his older email address ([email protected]), which was shown as leaked on Have I Been Pwned.
The FBI was able to see this private conversation after they [**DeadForums** **DeadForums**' servers[/url], and its databases, in February 2022
As Longmire added in his March 15 affidavit, the FBI also found Fitzpatrick's Optimum Online IP address (69.115.201.194) logged in the BreachForums database after using it once to sign in on the forum, either after forgetting to use Tor or to enable the VPN he usually used, or after the VPN service failed.
Fitzpatrick used the same IP address to access his iCloud account dozens of times from his iPhone over fewer than two weeks.
"While the FBI's examination of the BreachForums database reveals that the pompompurin account was typically accessed through VPN services or Tor, I believe it is notable that IP address 69.115.201.194 was once used to login to the pompompurin account on or about June 27, 2022," Longmire said.
"Further, records received from Apple Inc. concerning an iCloud account associated with FITZPATRICK reveals that the account was accessed approximately 97 times from IP address 69.115.201.194 between on or about May 19, 2022 and on or about June 2, 2022, from an iPhone mobile device."
On his arrest, the defendant also openly admitted to law enforcement without a lawyer present and after waiving his constitutional rights that he was behind the BreachForums Pompompurin account.
"He also admitted that he owns and administers BreachForums and previously operated the pompompurin account on **DeadForums**]," Longmire added.
"[i]He estimated that he earned approximately $1,000 a day from BreachForums, and that he uses this money to administer BreachForums and purchase other domains."
Source:
BleepingComputer
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/se...-database/