LeakBase: Russia arrests alleged operator of data leak forum

Russian police arrested the alleged operator of the cybercrime forum LeakBase on Wednesday. This was reported by the state Russian news agency TASS, citing Russian law enforcement agencies.

The arrested individual from the southern Russian port city of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov, near the border with Ukraine, is suspected by the authorities of operating “one of the largest international hacker platforms, LeakBase.” According to the TASS report, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Bureau for Special Technical Measures, along with colleagues from the Rostov region, arrested the resident of Taganrog, whose name was not released, on suspicion of creating and operating one of the largest international cybercrime platforms.

European investigative authorities were not involved. “We do not cooperate with Russian authorities and were not involved in the reported arrest,” Europol spokeswoman Claire Georges told the US tech portal TechCrunch, which reported on the arrest citing TASS.

With over 142,000 members, the LeakBase database was considered one of the world's largest online forums for cybercriminals to buy and sell stolen data and tools for cyberattacks. Investigative authorities from 14 countries, including Germany, led by Europol, took LeakBase offline in early March and seized its associated domains. Several individuals were arrested during raids in multiple countries.

The English-language forum LeakBase, active since 2021 and publicly accessible, contained a constantly updated archive of stolen databases with hundreds of millions of credentials, according to investigators. The platform allowed users to sell information from these stolen databases, including credit and debit card numbers and sensitive business and personal data.

(akn)