An international operation involving authorities from 14 countries including Malaysia has dismantled LeakBase, a major online forum for compromised data.
According to a Europol release, law enforcement agencies across multiple jurisdictions carried out coordinated actions on March 3, including arrests and house searches.
Around 100 operations were conducted, targeting 37 of the platform’s most active users.
Then on March 4, authorities seized the forum’s domain and displayed a law enforcement notice on the splash page.
The notice includes a reminder that attempts to access, alter or interfere with the site may result in additional criminal offences.
It listed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as one of the partners involved in the international law enforcement operation.
Europol said seizing the database enabled the "deanonymisation of multiple users" who believed they were operating incognito.
It added that investigators contacted several suspects using the same online channels they used to engage in criminal activity.
The operation is now in the prevention phase to deter further criminal activity.
As of December 2025, LeakBase counted more than 142,000 registered users with approximately 32,000 posts and over 215,000 private messages.
The forum, hosted in English on the open web and active since 2021, contained large volumes of credential pairs such as email and password combinations and other account access data used for account takeovers, fraud, and other cybercrimes.
A separate statement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said the operation has disrupted a platform that enabled cybercriminals to profit from stolen personal data including banking and account credentials.
It added that the announcement comes after the disruption of predecessor cybercrime marketplaces RaidForums in 2022 and BreachForums in 2023 as well as the conviction and sentencing of BreachForums’ founder in 2025.
