[DataBreaches] Law enforcement seizes domains owned by “Pompompurin” and one currently owned by DataBreaches

[hinoshiba]

When the owner of Breached.vc was arrested in March, people expected to see Conor Fitzpatrick’s BreachForums site seized by authorities. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t, and Baphomet, the forum’s administrator, was able to post messages on the site explaining what was going on and that he was taking the site down for fear it had been compromised. For months, the site was empty except for a warning posted by Baphomet not to trust any site claiming to be them. But when a new forum also called BreachForums opened, more warnings appeared on breached.vc.  But who was posting them? Was it law enforcement or someone who still had access to the domain? Today, the clearnet version of the site (Breached.vc) was seized. The notice says, “The domains related to Breach Forums have been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Justice in accordance with a seizure warrant issued pursuant to 18 U.S. §§ 981, 982, inter alia, by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia as part of law enforcement action taken in parallel with the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the New York Police Department, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Dutch National Police, the Australian Federal Police, the United Kingdom National Crime Agency, and Police Scotland.” The seizure notice has a “BF” with Pompompurin’s avatar (the Sanrio pompompurin .gif), but the .gif was edited to put handcuffs on Pompompurin.  As one person commented, the use of that .gif with handcuffs on it made them wonder if this was a real seizure notice or a joke. Why the government decided to seize the domains now has not been revealed by the government. There has been no press release today by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, DOJ Main, or the FBI. Perhaps they will issue one tomorrow that explains why they delayed for three months and first seized domains now. Collateral Damage The government not only seized Fitzpatrick’s domains today, but they also seized one of DataBreaches’ domains. The domain breaches.net is a domain that had been owned by Pompompurin. It was never used illegally and was used to provide a listing of breaches much like Have I Been Pwned and the vigilante.pw site. A screencap of breaches.net from April 2023 stored on archive.org shows that the site provided information on breaches but did not make any data from any of the breaches available. The site’s FAQ reiterated that its purpose is purely informative. Nowhere did the site even link to BreachForums. After Pompompurin’s arrest, when he realized he would not be using any of his domains, he offered breaches.net to DataBreaches because the domain name seemed like an obvious match. He did not ask for payment for it and would not accept money for the bequest. He simply provided the key and authorization to transfer the domain registration. DataBreaches arranged for the transfer of domain name ownership and paid the transfer fee. Breaches.net was owned by and registered by me before it was seized. DataBreaches does not know when the warrant for seizure was first written or authorized, but in any event, not all domains seized today were related to BreachForums and DataBreaches hopes the government recognizes the over-reach and corrects it. Tomorrow, DataBreaches will contact the USAO or court and ask about trying to get breaches.net un-seized. DataBreaches makes no predictions as to how this will go.

https://www.databreaches.net/law-enforcement-seizes-domains-owned-by-pompompurin-and-one-currently-owned-by-databreaches/

[hinoshiba]

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[hinoshiba]

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