U.S. and French authorities have confirmed the arrests of 5 hackers accused of being behind a number of main hacks and being a part of a infamous cybercrime discussion board.
On Thursday, the U.S. Division of Justice announced the indictment of British nationwide Kai West, 25, accusing him of being “a serial hacker” generally known as IntelBroker. U.S. authorities allege West is behind “a years-long hacking scheme,” which induced greater than $25 million in damages by concentrating on greater than 40 victims, together with a telecoms firm, a municipal healthcare supplier, and an web service supplier.
Within the case of the healthcare supplier, the DOJ alleges West tried to promote delicate affected person’s private data, together with names, Social Safety numbers, dates of delivery, genders, and well being plan and employer data.
Per the DOJ, West was the chief of a hacking group generally known as “CyberN[——]”, referring to a racist slur, which frequented “a specific web discussion board.” Whereas the DOJ didn’t title the discussion board, the criticism contains particulars that reference BreachForums, which was beforehand shut down by a coalition of worldwide regulation enforcement companies in 2023 and 2024.
The DOJ press launch mentioned West was arrested in France earlier in February and is now dealing with extradition to the US.
In accordance with the complaint towards West, the CyberN[——] group included 4 different people who U.S. authorities haven’t named.
These 4 people seem to have been arrested in France earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement that French police arrested 4 folks suspected of working BreachForums and of being a part of a collective referred to as “ShinyHunters.”
“This week’s arrests focused the people suspected of being the positioning’s fundamental directors, and raised hopes of its everlasting closure,” mentioned Beccuau, in keeping with a translation of the press launch.
The prosecutor additionally confirmed West, solely named within the assertion as IntelBroker, had been arrested in France in February, which aligns with what U.S. authorities introduced on Thursday.
When reached for remark, a spokesperson for the French prosecutor’s workplace referred TechCrunch to its revealed assertion.
In response to a query concerning the 4 unnamed co-conspirators, U.S. Justice Division spokesperson Nicholas Biase mentioned he couldn’t touch upon “uncharged people,” and declined to make clear in a follow-up e-mail.
BreachForums was probably the most well-known hacking boards on the web, the place cybercriminals bought hacking instruments, in addition to marketed, bought, and traded information stolen from firms, such as 23andMe, and plenty of others.
In 2023, U.S. federal authorities seized and shut down BreachForums, three months after arresting its administrator, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, often known as “Pompompurin.” The location then relaunched, however it was seized and shut down again in 2024.
West is charged with conspiracy to commit laptop intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, accessing a protected laptop to acquire data, and wire fraud.