On Wednesday, US law enforcement authorities took into custody a New York man suspected of being Pompompurin – the mastermind behind the hacking forum BreachForums.
Court documents revealed that he was charged with a single count of conspiracy to encourage individuals to market illegal access devices.
During the arrest, Connor Brian Fitzpatrick confessed to being Pompourin – the owner of the cybercrime forum Breach Forums.
On Thursday, Fitzpatrick was released on $300,000 bail and will appear in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on March 24, Bloomberg reports.
The defendant filed his papers with the court, which means he is currently only allowed to travel within the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, as well as the Eastern District of Virginia for any court hearings. This also prohibits him from contacting witnesses, co-defendants , or even co-conspirators.
While the owner of BreachForums is absent, a forum administrator stated that their website will remain operational and will continue to operate in current state .
The administrator noted that he has full control over the site's architecture and continues to maintain and manage the forum.
Who is Pompompurin?
With a notorious reputation as one of the most notorious members of an underground cybercrime organization focused on infiltrating companies and then spreading stolen data on forums or social, Pompompurin quickly became a prominent figure on RaidForums.
In the wake of the FBI's takeover of RaidForums in 2022, Pompourin took it upon himself to create BreachForums, an online space that would help fill this void.
Since its inception, this data leak forum has become the largest in its category and is preferred by cybercriminals and ransomware for spreading stolen information.
Just last week, BreachForums posed a serious risk as it was used to try to promote stolen personal information from a data breach at DC Health Link, which provides healthcare for Congressional representatives, their staff, and their family members in America.
BreachForums quickly gained a bad reputation as a primary source of cybercrime, while Pompompurin further solidified his presence with his involvement in numerous high-profile corporate breaches.
These breaches include sending fake emails for a cyberattack using a flaw in the FBI's Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP), stealing customer data from Robinhood , and using a bug to verify the email addresses of 5.4 million Twitter users.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
