BreachForums hacker site administrator Conor Brian Fitzpatrick has been spared jail but will be monitored by authorities for 20 years. He has been found guilty of using BreachForums as a place to sell hundreds of millions of user data from the United States, government agencies and departments and companies that have been hacked.
In addition to being found guilty of running BreachForums, Fitzpatrick also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to access devices for fraudulent purposes, offering services to access devices without authorization and possessing pornographic content of minors.
Because of the seriousness of his offence, the prosecutor asked the court to impose a prison sentence of up to 188 months (almost 16 years) but the judge gave a leniency. He was sentenced to house arrest with a GPS bracelet attached to his leg for two years. Access to the internet is also prohibited during the first year of the sentence. Next, he is prohibited from doing any business of buying and selling online except after receiving permission from the court. In addition, he was ordered to pay compensation to the victim with an undisclosed amount.
In addition to US user data, data from several user data theft incidents in Malaysia has also been sold through BreachForum. Among the ones we have reported is the data of 13 million users of Astro, Maybank, and SPR almost two years ago. The BreachForums site was seized by authorities after Fitzpatrick was arrested.