Taking the shine off BreachForums – Sophos Information

On June 25, 2025, French authorities introduced that 4 members of the ShinyHunters (also called ShinyCorp) cybercriminal group have been arrested in a number of French areas for cybercrime actions and involvement within the English-language underground discussion board often known as BreachForums. The coordinated world legislation enforcement effort concentrating on the ‘ShinyHunters’, ‘Hole’, ‘Noct’, and ‘Depressed’ personas adopted the February arrest of Kai West (also called ‘IntelBroker’), who beforehand administered BreachForums.

The ShinyHunters menace group has been lively since 2020 and has compromised organizations in industries reminiscent of telecommunications, e-commerce, know-how, and retail. The group is thought for promoting stolen information solely on RaidForums and BreachForums. The ShinyHunters persona was a key participant in these boards as a contributor and administrator.

Since its authentic creation as RaidForums in 2015, BreachForums had been taken down quite a few occasions and had been administered by a number of personas. Desk 1 lists a timeline of notable occasions within the discussion board’s historical past.

Date	Occasion	Element
March 19, 2015	RaidForums launch	Diogo Santos Coelho (also called ‘All-powerful’) based RaidForums. It turned one of many largest information leak boards, peaking at over 530,000 customers.
January 31, 2022	Arrest	Coelho was arrested within the UK on the request of U.S. authorities.
February 25, 2022	Discussion board offline	RaidForums turned inaccessible, and a suspected credential-harvesting clone appeared.
March 4, 2022	BreachForums (v1) launch	Conor Fitzpatrick (also called ‘Pompompurin’) launched BreachForums as a successor to RaidForums.
April 12, 2022	Area seizures	U.S. authorities introduced the seizure of RaidForums domains as a part of Operation TOURNIQUET.
March 15, 2023	Arrest	Fitzpatrick was arrested in Peekskill, New York.
March 21, 2023	Discussion board offline	An administrator often known as ‘Baphomet’ shut down the discussion board, citing issues about legislation enforcement actions.
June 12, 2023	BreachForums (v2) launch	The ShinyHunters persona and Baphomet relaunched BreachForums (breachforums . vc).
June 18, 2023	Discussion board compromise	BreachForums was compromised by ‘OnniForums’, and information of roughly 4,000 members was leaked.
Could 15, 2024	Area seizures	U.S. authorities seized a number of BreachForums domains.
Could 29, 2024	BreachForums (v3) launch	BreachForums resurfaced (breachforums . st). Customers suspected that it was a honeypot, but it surely was finally deemed authentic.
June 14, 2024	Management change	ShinyHunters retired, and ‘Anastasia’ assumed possession.
August 1, 2024	Management change	IntelBroker assumed management.
January 1, 2025	Management change	IntelBroker resigned as proprietor, and Anastasia continued because the discussion board administrator.
February 2025	Arrest	Worldwide legislation enforcement arrested Kai West (IntelBroker) in France.
April 28, 2025	Discussion board offline	Regardless of quite a few claims and rumors, it’s unclear if the discussion board directors, one other menace group, or legislation enforcement was accountable for the disappearance.
June 4, 2025	BreachForums (v4) launch	ShinyHunters relaunched the discussion board (breach-forums . st).
June 9, 2025	Discussion board on the market	ShinyHunters introduced the discussion board was on the market.
June 22, 2025	Arrests	French authorities arrested members of the ShinyHunters menace group throughout a coordinated legislation enforcement operation.
June 25, 2025	Federal prices	U.S. authorities unsealed an indictment charging Kai West (IntelBroker) with a number of cybercrimes.

Desk 1: Timeline of main BreachForums occasions.

The ShinyHunters persona partnered with Baphomet to relaunch the second occasion of BreachForums (v2) in June 2023 and later launched the June 2025 occasion (v4) alone. The interim model (v3) abruptly disappeared in April 2025, and the trigger is unclear. ‘Darkish Storm Staff’ claimed that it took the discussion board down through a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault (see Determine 1). Different personas reported that the Qilin ransomware operators brought about the outage in retaliation for his or her ban from BreachForums. Rumors additionally circulated that legislation enforcement was accountable.

Determine 1: Darkish Storm claiming accountability for the BreachForums takedown. (Supply: X)

On June 4, Counter Risk Unit™ (CTU) researchers recognized the relaunch of BreachForums (v4) below the administration of the ShinyHunters persona. One of many first posts was purportedly by IntelBroker, a distinguished BreachForums contributor who took management of BreachForums (v3) in 2024. The persona maintained a repute for promoting entry to database dumps and compromised programs and was related to cybercrime teams CNZ (redacted) and GOLD PUMPKIN (also called HELLCAT). In January 2025, they stepped down as BreachForums’ proprietor (see Determine 2), and rumors of their arrest circulated. These rumors have been confirmed on June 25, when the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) introduced the unsealing of an indictment towards Kai West, who operated below the IntelBroker alias. West was arrested in February, so the June BreachForums submit was submitted by somebody impersonating the persona.

Determine 2: IntelBroker asserting resignation as BreachForums proprietor. (Supply: X)

The BreachForums (v4) relaunch was short-lived. On June 9, the bulletin board displayed a discover that it was closed and that the discussion board was on the market for $2,500 USD (see Determine 3). The message explicitly warned scammers to “keep away”. The ShinyHunters members have been arrested two weeks later.

Determine 3: ShinyHunters promoting BreachForums on the market. (Supply: BreachForums)

As of this publication, BreachForums stays offline. The discussion board’s future is unclear, however the sample of relaunches might proceed.

These arrests replicate rising legislation enforcement stress on cybercriminal infrastructure and operations. Within the U.S. Division of Justice announcement in regards to the arrest and indictment of Kai West, FBI Assistant Director in Cost Christopher G. Raia acknowledged that the arrests “ought to function a warning to anybody pondering they’ll disguise behind a keyboard and commit cybercrime with impunity; the FBI will discover and maintain you accountable regardless of the place you’re.” CTU™ researchers proceed to observe legislation enforcement actions and their affect on the cybercrime panorama.