U.S. legislation enforcement arrested on Wednesday a New York man believed to be Pompompurin, the proprietor of the BreachForums hacking discussion board.

In response to court docket paperwork, he was charged with one depend of conspiracy to solicit people to promote unauthorized entry gadgets.

Throughout the arrest, the defendant allegedly admitted that his actual identify was Connor Brian Fitzpatrick and that he was Pompourin, the proprietor of the Breach Boards cybercrime discussion board.

“After I arrested the defendant on March 15, 2023, he said to me in substance and partially that: a) his identify was Conor Brian FitzPatrick; b) he used the alias “pompourin,” and c) he was the proprietor and administrator of “BreachForums,” the info breach web site referenced within the Criticism,” FBI Particular Agent John Longmire says.

Fitzpatrick was launched on Thursday on a $300,000 bond and can seem within the District Court docket of the Jap District of Virginia on March 24, as first reported by Bloomberg.

Till his look in court docket, the defendant has surrendered his paperwork and can solely be allowed to journey inside the Southern and Jap Districts of New York and the Jap District of Virginia for court docket functions. He’s additionally restricted from contacting witnesses, codefendants, or coconspirators.

Whereas the suspected proprietor of BreachForums is away, a discussion board admin stated that the positioning would proceed to function in its present capability.

The admin added that they have full entry to the positioning’s infrastructure and can proceed to function the discussion board.

Who’s Pompompurin?

Pompompurin has been a well known participant in a cybercriminal underground dedicated to breaching corporations and promoting or leaking stolen knowledge by way of boards and social media. He was additionally a high-profile member of the RaidForums cybercrime discussion board.

After the FBI seized RaidForums in 2022, Pompourin created a brand new discussion board named ‘BreachForums’ to fill the void.

It has since grow to be the most important knowledge leak discussion board of its type, generally utilized by hackers and ransomware gangs to leak stolen knowledge.

Final week, BreachForums was utilized by a risk actor to try to promote the private knowledge of U.S. politicians that was stolen in a breach on D.C. Well being Hyperlink, a healthcare supplier for U.S. Home members, their employees, and their households.

Whereas BreachForums grew to become a pressure in cybercrime by itself, Pompompurin has additionally been concerned in varied high-profile firm breaches.

These breaches embody sending pretend cyberattack emails utilizing a flaw within the FBI’s Legislation Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP), stealing buyer knowledge from Robinhood, and allegedly utilizing a bug to substantiate the e-mail addresses of 5.4 million Twitter customers.