- Europol dismantles LeakBase underground data forum
- Platform hosted stolen data trading with global reach
- Authorities seized domain and targeted active users
Several people have allegedly been arrested during a wide-ranging police operation which sought to dismantle a popular underground data leak forum.
Europol announced a major international operation which took down LeakBase, a forum that, as the agency explains, “established itself as a central hub in the cybercrime ecosystem”.
It was set up in 2021, and within four years had more than 142,000 registered users, publishing some 32,000, posts and sending more than 215,000 private messages.
Interventions, house searches, and arrests
On this forum, which operated on the open web and in English, users could buy, sell, and exchange compromised data, stolen from various businesses and individuals across the world. Russia was apparently off limits, and the forum did not allow the sale or publication of any data related to the country.
On March 3, 2026, law enforcement authorities across multiple countries and jurisdictions took around 100 actions, and made house searches, “knock-and-talk” interventions, and arrests.
Europol did not say how many people were arrested, under what charges, or where they were located. It did say that the police took “measures” against 37 of the forum’s most active users.
A day later, it seized the forum’s domain and defaced it. The forum’s database was also confiscated by the authorities, who are now working to deanonymize users and have apparently already “engaged directly with several suspects”.
“This operation shows that no corner of the internet is beyond the reach of international law enforcement. What began as a shadowy forum for stolen data has now been dismantled, and those who believed they could hide behind anonymity are being identified and held accountable,” said Edvardas Šileris, Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre.
“This is a clear message to cybercriminals everywhere: if you traffic in other people’s stolen information, law enforcement will find you and bring you to justice.”
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