An international law enforcement operation led by the FBI and Europol has dismantled LeakBase, a cybercrime forum used by hackers to trade stolen data and hacking tools.
Authorities said the platform hosted more than 142,000 members and over 215,000 messages, making it one of the largest active cybercriminal marketplaces online.
“The FBI, Europol, and law enforcement agencies from around the world executed a takedown of LeakBase, one of the largest online cybercriminal platforms, seizing users’ accounts, posts, credit details, private messages, and IP logs for evidentiary purposes,”
Said FBI cyber division assistant director, Brett Leatherman.
The coordinated operation took place on March 3 and 4 and involved law enforcement agencies across 14 countries carrying out synchronised actions against the platform and its users.
Authorities replaced the website with seizure banners, issued prevention notices to members and conducted arrests and searches in countries including the United States, Australia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.
LeakBase followed the earlier cybercrime marketplace Raidforums, which was seized in 2022 after hosting leaked datasets including personal information tied to users of crypto wallet provider Ledger.
The operation comes as the crypto industry continues to face rising cybercrime threats, including leaked exchange credentials, social engineering attacks and ransomware campaigns targeting digital asset users.