- Europol dismantles underground data forum LeakBase
- Hosted platform for trading stolen data with global reach
- Authorities seized the domain and targeted active users
Several people have reportedly been arrested during a massive police operation aimed at dismantling a popular underground data leak forum.
Europol announced a major international operation that took down LeakBase, a forum that, as the agency explains, “has established itself as a hub of the cybercrime ecosystem.”
It was created in 2021 and in four years had more than 142,000 registered users, publishing some 32,000 posts and sending more than 215,000 private messages.
Interventions, searches and arrests
On this forum, which operated on the open web and in English, users could buy, sell and trade compromised data stolen from various companies and individuals around the world. Russia was apparently banned and the forum did not allow the sale or publication of data relating to that country.
On March 3, 2026, law enforcement authorities in several countries and jurisdictions took approximately 100 actions and conducted home searches, knock and talk, and arrests.
Europol did not say how many people had been arrested, on what charges or where they were. He specifies that the police took “measures” against 37 of the most active users of the forum.
A day later, he took over the forum domain and defaced it. The forum’s database was also confiscated by authorities, who are now working to deanonymize users and are said to have already “engaged directly with several suspects.”
“This operation shows that no corner of the Internet is safe from international law enforcement. What started as a shadowy forum for stolen data has now been dismantled, and those who thought they could hide behind anonymity are being identified and held accountable,” said Edvardas Šileris, director of Europol’s European Cybercrime Center.
“This is a clear message to cybercriminals everywhere: if you traffic in information stolen from other people, law enforcement will find you and bring you to justice.”
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