While the recent takedown of BreachForums by the FBI, in collaboration with international law enforcement agencies, marked a significant victory against cybercrime. Less than 24 hours after this major blow, the renowned threat actor known as USDoD made an announcement stating his plans to resurrect the forum’s community, demonstrating the relentless nature of the cyber underworld.
BreachForums had long been a central marketplace for cybercriminals, facilitating the trade of stolen data and hacking tools. Its sudden removal from the dark web was a monumental achievement for law enforcement, akin to dismantling a major illicit market.
However, the cybercriminal community’s response was swift and defiant as demonstrated by the alleged claim by ShinyHunters, one of the leftover administrators just a day later that the site domain itself had been recovered.
Alongside the possible domain recovery, USDoD also separately pledged to rebuild and improve upon BreachForums through a newer competitive forum, promising a new beginning for the infamous community.
USDoD Announces Creation of Breach Nation Forum
In a bold statement following the takedown, USDoD assured the community that he had already been working on rebuilding BreachForums, promising that the forum’s legacy and user data would be preserved. He emphasized his dedication to creating a new community, presenting the takedown as not the end but an opportunity for a fresh start.
His announcement also detailed the allocation of resources and infrastructure to support the new forum. The new domains, breachnation.io and databreached.io, are set to launch on July 4, 2024, symbolically coinciding with Independence Day. This new community, dubbed “Breach Nation,” aims to offer enhanced features and security.
USDoD’s vision for BreachForums 3.0 includes robust infrastructure, with separate servers to ensure optimal performance and security. He has assured the community that he is not driven by profit and aims to offer an upgraded member rank to the first 200,000 users as a token of goodwill.
He acknowledged the challenges ahead, including potential opposition from law enforcement as well as possible competition from the BreachForums administrator ShinyHunters. He also addressed concerns about compromise within the forum’s administration, stating that he would initially manage it alone to ensure security and build trust.
USDoD’s Earlier Activities
USDoD’s bold promise to create the new Breach Nation forum highlights the persistence of the cybercriminal underworld. The threat actor is a notable figure in the cybercriminal community and was previously known as NetSec on RaidForums. USDoD is known to employ sophisticated social engineering and impersonation techniques to penetrate secure systems.
His activities included exposing data related to several high-profile organizations such as InfraGard, Airbus, and several, the U.S. Army, NATO Cyber Center, and CEPOL. He also claimed responsibility for alleged data leaks from the defense contractor Thales as well the Communist Party of China.
A newer CDN created by USDoD was first publicized around the same time as the alleged China data leak, this CDN is stated to be incorporated for the new domain’s infrastructure and seemingly being reworked and shifted to a new domain.
While the potential impact of the new forum remains unclear, it may be a key development to watch in the ongoing struggle between law enforcement and cybercrime in the aftermath of the BreachForums domain seizure.
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