In 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's email server was hacked, and it is only now that they have arrested the person suspected of conducting the attack. The hacker in question, Conor Brain Fitzpatrick was also allegedly running the dark web forum, BreachForums.
Alleged Hacker's Arrest
US authorities arrested Fitzpatrick on Wednesday for the suspicion of being BreachForum's administrator, "Pompompurin." he was said to be responsible for several recent attacks, including the high-profile incident back in 2021 and many more involving the FBI.
Reports even say that Pompompurin was responsible for the 2021 hack that affected seven million users, the 2022 Twitter data leak, and the 2022 breach of the FBI's network, wherein 80,000 of its members' contact information went on sale, according to Engadget.
One of the FBI agents claimed in a sworn affidavit that Fitzpatrick admitted to the ownership of BreachForums and that he was actually Pompompurin. Despite being shut down last year, the hacker forum is still active.
A user that goes by the name "Baphomet" will be taking over the position of Pompompurin as the owner, saying that it's safe to assume that the latter won't be coming back. He added that he has most, if not all access to "protect BF [BreachForum] infrastructure and users."
2021 High-Profile FBI Attack
The incident from two years ago regarding the FBI's email server resulted in threatening spam emails being sent to more than 100,000 people. The email was said to have mentioned that the users' information may be accessed by Vinny Troia, as mentioned in New York Post.
Troia is a known hacker and the owner of Night Lion Security, a cybersecurity company. The FBI immediately took the affected systems offline the moment it was reported. They clarified that even if the emails came from the FBI/DHS, they were indeed fake.
There were two instances when the emails were released to several users, along with a remark saying "stay safe" which the email noted was from the US Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Threat Detection and Analysis Group, a department that has been shut down years ago.
Recent 2022 FBI Attack
In December 2022, the FBI also suffered an attack that affected the FBI's InfraGard. This resulted in the hackers stealing the contact information of 80,000 members and putting them up for sale in a cybercrime forum.
A user who went by the name "USDoD" tried selling the stolen data in the hacking forum for $50,000. The hacker managed to steal the data by applying for an account in InfraGard using the social security number, DoB, and other details of the CEO of a U.S. financial corporation.
The threat actor knew that the completion of the registration may take at least three months and that they weren't expecting to be approved, as mentioned in SpiceWorks. The stolen data includes names, social security data, and date of birth.
USDoD even mentioned that he thinks no one will pay the $50,000 price, but that they have to price it higher in order to accommodate for possible negotiations that will still lead to the price he wanted to get.
