An international law enforcement operation involving the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol and other agencies has taken down one of the most popular cyber crime forums on the internet, LeakBase.
The forum was a place for hackers to trade stolen data and tools of cybercrime, gathering more than 142,000 members and more than 215,000 posts.
“The FBI, Europol and law enforcement agencies from around the world conducted an operation to take down LeakBase, one of the largest online cyber crime platforms, seizing user accounts, messages, credit details, personal messages and IP records for evidentiary purposes,” FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said in a statement on Wednesday.
The LeakBase takedown covered 14 countries
The seizure operation, which took place on March 3 and 4, involved law enforcement officials and officers from 14 countries in a coordinated operation against LeakBase and its users.
After the operation, authorities replaced the site with seizure banners, issued preventive notices to members and collected additional evidence.
Law enforcement authorities also executed search and arrest warrants in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Assistant Prosecutor General A. Thisen Duva of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said: “The reinstatement of this cyber forum disrupts a major international platform that cybercriminals use to obtain and profit from the theft of sensitive personal, banking and account information.”
While there was no reference to crypto-related accounts, its predecessor marketplace Raidforums, which was shut down in 2022, previously contained leaked data containing about “272,000 detailed personal information” of users of crypto wallet company Ledger.
The crypto industry is seeing an increase in data leaks
Over the past year alone, the cryptocurrency industry has seen an increase in the credibility of disclosed exchanges, insider information disclosures, and social engineering efforts.
related to: Crypto fund inflows slow to lowest since October 2024
In May 2025, cybercriminals reportedly bribed overseas customer service contractors to gain access to crypto exchange Coinbase’s internal systems. This allowed them to steal personal information that could be used in social engineering scams or even physical extortion attempts.
About 60,000 Bitcoin addresses linked to the LockBit ransomware infrastructure were exposed after hackers breached the group’s dark web subsidiary.
Recently, on February 23, a trader who goes by the name TraderSZ said that a former Revolution employee threatened to reveal his identity and personal information if he did not pay a ransom and also contact his family members.
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