WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Department of Justice has announced that the LeakBase database, one of the world's largest online forums for cybercriminals to buy and sell stolen data and cybercrime tools, has been dismantled.
According to an affidavit unsealed this week, the LeakBase forum had more than 142,000 members and more than 215,000 messages between members. Available on the open web and in English, the forum had an enormous and continuously updated archive of hacked databases including many from high profile attacks, including hundreds of millions of account credentials. LeakBase allowed forum users to sell the information from stolen databases, including data illegally obtained from U.S. corporations and individuals, and offered credit and debit card numbers, banking account and routing information, usernames and associated passwords which could facilitate additional account takeovers, as well as other sensitive business and personally identifiable information.
On March 3 and 4, law enforcement agents and officers in 14 countries including the United States took synchronized actions against LeakBase and its users in an operation coordinated by Europol in The Hague. The United States and other countries shut down LeakBase, seized its data and two of the domains used by the forum, posted seizure banners on the LeakBase sites, sent prevention messages to LeakBase members, and collected additional evidence. Law enforcement also executed search warrants, arrests, and conducted interviews in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
'The takedown of this cyber forum disrupts a major international platform that cybercriminals use to obtain and profit from the theft of sensitive personal, banking and account credentials,' said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
The dismantling of LeakBase follows the disruption of predecessor cybercrime marketplaces - RaidForums in 2022 and BreachForums in 2023, in addition to the conviction and subsequent sentencing of the founder of BreachForums in 2025.
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