A 20-Year-Old Has Become
a Major Mafia, Here’s Who He Is
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia –Cybercrime can be committed by anyone, even at a young age. Who would have thought that a 20-year-old could become a major mafia boss running large-scale cybercrime activities?
Recently, a cybercrime ring operation uncovered key figures behind the giant dark web marketplace, ‘BreachForums.’
Four perpetrators were arrested, all reportedly around 20 years old.
For your information, BreachForums is one of the most well-known cybercrime discussion forums in the world. In 2022, BreachForums evolved into a place to advertise stolen data and recruit criminal groups.
This dark web marketplace often sells hacking tools used to compromise targets, even causing significant financial losses. It could be said that this marketplace is a place for cyber thieves to exchange information and conduct transactions.
BreachForums itself was only shut down in May 2024. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) stated that ShinyHunters, the alias of one of the perpetrators, had managed the site from June until it was shut down.
The perpetrators were arrested by the Paris police’s cybercrime brigade (BL2C) in the Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-Maritime regions on the north coast. Arrests also took place on Reunion Island, located between Madagascar and Mauritius.
All of the individuals arrested used aliases such as Hollow, Noct, Depressed, and ShinyHunters. The last name, in particular, has also been linked to attacks on Snowflake, Ticketmaster, and AT&T.
While seemingly individual, cybersecurity analysts say ShinyHunter is a criminal mafia group. One of its members, Sebastien Raoult, a French citizen, was previously arrested in the US, as reported by The Register, Saturday (July 26, 2025).
All suspects are accused of playing roles in joint attacks on the retailer Boulanger, the government department France Travail, and the French Football Federation.
Previously, in February, law enforcement also arrested IntelBroker. Also arrested was US citizen Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, also known as Pompompurin, a former BreachForums administrator.
Pompompurin was arrested in March 2023 and sentenced to 20 years with parole in January 2024. He has not yet served two years of house arrest, but has regained access to the internet.
SOURCE : CNBC INDONESIA
