The FBI seizure of cybercrime forum RaidForums earlier this year hasn’t stopped black hats from finding a new place to connect online following the emergence of a new alternative: Breached.
The rapid rise of Breached – also known as BreachForums – shows there remains a strong demand for sites that facilitate the buying and selling of stolen data. “Breached is not only the successor of RaidForums, but in a very short time frame has become a promising data leak marketplace,” says Yael Kishon, a threat intelligence analyst at Israeli threat intelligence firm Kela.
The forum’s popularity is bolstered by users of now-defunct RaidForums and also a large repository of stolen data, he says.
RaidForums, disrupted in February by law enforcement, was a haven for financially motivated cybercriminals. Forums help criminals monetize data theft, enabling them to sell stolen payment card details or initial access to hacked corporate networks and more. Buyers use the data to commit identity theft, run phishing campaigns or engage in credential stuffing and more quickly execute ransomware attacks and other types of crime.
