Police Arrest BreachForums Owner ‘Pompompurin’ on Hacking Charges. Parents Bail Him Out.

US law enforcement have arrested and charged the owner of BreachForums, a notorious platform hackers use to leak and sell data taken from data breaches.

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was arrested in Peekskill, New York on charges of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

The FBI agent who led the arrest said Fitzpatrick admitted to using the alias ‘Pompompurin’ and was the owner and operator of BreachForums.

Cybersecurity investigators had watched Fitzpatrick closely as a suspected significant player in the cybercrime ecosystem, Bloomberg reports.

Reports from the infosec community say Fitzpatrick is connected to the 2021 Robinhood breach, the massive Twitter leak in November of 2022. The BreachForums owner is also said to be responsible for hacking FBI servers to send out fake cybersecurity warnings from the agency’s email address.

BreachForums is still operational at this time. An acting admin with similar privileges took over in Fitzpatrick’s absence.

“I think it's safe to assume [Pompompurin] won't be coming back, so I'll be taking ownership of the forum,” said the person using the handle Baphomet. “I have most, if not all the access necessary to protect BF infrastructure and users.”

Fitzpatrick was released on a $300,000 bond paid by his parents and will appear in a Virginia court this week to face the charges.