The French police have reportedly arrested five operators of the BreachForum cybercrime forum, a website used by cybercriminals to leak and sell stolen data that exposed the sensitive information of millions.
News of the arrests come from Le Parisien, which claims the law enforcement operation was carried out by the cybercrime unit (BL2C) of the Paris police department on Monday.
According to reporters, the police carried out simultaneous raids in the regions of Hauts-de-Seine (Paris), Seine-Maritime (Normandy), and Réunion (overseas).
During this action, they have arrested four hackers known online by the handles "ShinyHunters," "Hollow," "Noct," and "Depressed."
For months, rumors circulated that another well-known threat actor, "IntelBroker," had also been arrested. Le Parisien reports that IntelBroker was also arrested by French authorities in February 2025.
The BreachForums hacking forums have gone through numerous iterations over the years but acted as a community for cybercriminals to trade, sell, and leak stolen data, as well as sell access to corporate networks and other illegal cybercrime services.
In 2023, the original BreachForums shut down after its operator, Conor Brian FitzPatrick (aka Pompompurin), was arrested.
Soon after, other threat actors in the community launched BreachForums v2, which was led by threat actors known as ShinyHunters, Baphomet, and, later, IntelBroker.
The five threat actors that were arrested were reportedly involved in the operation of this new launch of the site.
ShinyHunters and IntelBroker were admins/owners of the site, and archived posts show Hollow acting as a moderator. It is unclear what involvement "depressed" and "noct" had in the operation of the site.
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