The administrator of a popular hacker forum turned out to be not only a criminal, but also a pervert.
In March, US police arrested Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, founder and owner of hacker site BreachForums, known by the nickname "pompompurin", for his role in curating the forum.
Although Fitzpatrick's prosecution was delayed several times, once reportedly due to a suicide attempt, court documents from 13 July shed new light on the case.
According to the latest information, Fitzpatrick was charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud, access device fraud leading to extortion, and possession of child pornography. Pompompurine reportedly pleaded guilty to all three counts.
While the first two points of the charge were obvious, the last point raised some eyebrows.
The court record states that Fitzpatrick's devices contained "videos depicting underage teenagers and children under the age of 12 engaging in sexually explicit behavior." According to the court, more than 600 images of child pornography were also stored on Pompompurine's devices.
Fitzpatrick's trial is set for November 17th. As of now, he is not jailed, but is on $300,000 bail with additional restrictions such as no access to a computer, no contact with minors, no access to data breach websites, and a VPN ban.
BreachForums (Breached) is a cybercrime forum that was active from 2022 to 2023. The site acted as an alternative and successor to RaidForums, which was shut down in 2022. Breached allowed people to discuss various hacking topics and distribute data leaks, pornography, hacking tools, and other services.
After Pompompurin's arrest, one of the forum administrators under the nickname "Baphomet" stated that he takes responsibility for the further activities of BreachForums, and that he has all the necessary access and authority to do so. The new administrator managed to restrict Pompompurine's access to the forum's infrastructure in order to protect its participants from possible interference from the FBI.
The new administrator has disabled the site, moving it to a new infrastructure that is protected from possible compromise by law enforcement. However, this plan failed as Baphomet stated that the secret services likely had access to Pompompurin's car.
Due to concerns that Pompompurine's devices are now in the hands of law enforcement and thus have access to Breached's infrastructure, Baphomet has decided to close Breached for good and let community members choose where they want to go next.
In March, US police arrested Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, founder and owner of hacker site BreachForums, known by the nickname "pompompurin", for his role in curating the forum.
Although Fitzpatrick's prosecution was delayed several times, once reportedly due to a suicide attempt, court documents from 13 July shed new light on the case.
According to the latest information, Fitzpatrick was charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud, access device fraud leading to extortion, and possession of child pornography. Pompompurine reportedly pleaded guilty to all three counts.
While the first two points of the charge were obvious, the last point raised some eyebrows.
The court record states that Fitzpatrick's devices contained "videos depicting underage teenagers and children under the age of 12 engaging in sexually explicit behavior." According to the court, more than 600 images of child pornography were also stored on Pompompurine's devices.
Fitzpatrick's trial is set for November 17th. As of now, he is not jailed, but is on $300,000 bail with additional restrictions such as no access to a computer, no contact with minors, no access to data breach websites, and a VPN ban.
BreachForums (Breached) is a cybercrime forum that was active from 2022 to 2023. The site acted as an alternative and successor to RaidForums, which was shut down in 2022. Breached allowed people to discuss various hacking topics and distribute data leaks, pornography, hacking tools, and other services.
After Pompompurin's arrest, one of the forum administrators under the nickname "Baphomet" stated that he takes responsibility for the further activities of BreachForums, and that he has all the necessary access and authority to do so. The new administrator managed to restrict Pompompurine's access to the forum's infrastructure in order to protect its participants from possible interference from the FBI.
The new administrator has disabled the site, moving it to a new infrastructure that is protected from possible compromise by law enforcement. However, this plan failed as Baphomet stated that the secret services likely had access to Pompompurin's car.
Due to concerns that Pompompurine's devices are now in the hands of law enforcement and thus have access to Breached's infrastructure, Baphomet has decided to close Breached for good and let community members choose where they want to go next.
