On June 25, 2025, French authorities introduced that 4 members of the ShinyHunters (also called ShinyCorp) cybercriminal group had been arrested in a number of French areas for cybercrime actions and involvement within the English-language underground discussion board often called BreachForums. The coordinated world legislation enforcement effort focusing on the ‘ShinyHunters’, ‘Hole’, ‘Noct’, and ‘Depressed’ personas adopted the February arrest of Kai West (also called ‘IntelBroker’), who beforehand administered BreachForums.
The ShinyHunters risk group has been energetic since 2020 and has compromised organizations in industries resembling telecommunications, e-commerce, expertise, and retail. The group is understood 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 unique creation as RaidForums in 2015, BreachForums had been taken down quite a few instances 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 called ‘Baphomet’ shut down the discussion board, citing considerations 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 risk group, or legislation enforcement was answerable 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 risk group throughout a coordinated legislation enforcement operation. |
| June 25, 2025 | Federal expenses | 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 Crew’ claimed that it took the discussion board down by way of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault (see Determine 1). Different personas reported that the Qilin ransomware operators triggered 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 Menace Unit™ (CTU) researchers recognized the relaunch of BreachForums (v4) beneath the administration of the ShinyHunters persona. One of many first posts was purportedly by IntelBroker, a outstanding BreachForums contributor who took management of BreachForums (v3) in 2024. The persona maintained a popularity for promoting entry to database dumps and compromised methods and was linked 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 had been confirmed on June 25, when the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) introduced the unsealing of an indictment in opposition to Kai West, who operated beneath the IntelBroker alias. West was arrested in February, so the June BreachForums publish was submitted by somebody impersonating the persona.
Determine 2: IntelBroker saying 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 had 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 could proceed.
These arrests mirror 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 considering they will disguise behind a keyboard and commit cybercrime with impunity; the FBI will discover and maintain you accountable irrespective of the place you’re.” CTU™ researchers proceed to observe legislation enforcement actions and their influence on the cybercrime panorama.
