A British man accused of working beneath the alias “IntelBroker” on cybercrime boards has been indicted for allegedly promoting stolen information in a case that triggered greater than $25 million in damages
The US Southern District of New York Lawyer’s Workplace introduced Kai West’s indictment on Wednesday. West allegedly operated on on-line black markets beneath the IntelBroker pseudonym and triggered in extra of $25 million in damages to victims.
Former US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) Chairman and lawyer Jay Clayton was among the many individuals accountable for unsealing the indictment. “This motion displays the FBI’s dedication to pursuing cybercriminals world wide,” he mentioned.
West reportedly conspired with on-line group to steal the info from a telecommunications firm CyberN***ers to steal information from a number of corporations. These included a telecommunications firm, a municipal healthcare supplier, an web service supplier and over 40 different firms.
Undercover buy triggered expenses
In line with the grievance, an undercover legislation enforcement agent despatched a personal message to IntelBroker to buy information of a sufferer for $250 price of Bitcoin (BTC). An deal with attributed to West was supplied, and after the fee, the info was delivered, allegedly together with three admin-level usernames and passwords.
West and his on-line collaborators reportedly provided the illicitly acquired information on the market for over $2 million. He was then arrested in France in February, and the US is presently searching for his extradition.
FBI Assistant Director in Cost Christopher Raia claimed that West is a “serial hacker” and that he was capable of “promote it for hundreds of thousands in illicit funds.” IntelBroker was lively on the now-defunct cybercrime discussion board BreachForums.
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In line with the announcement, a evaluation of the 158 threads allegedly began by West provided stolen information on the market, in Discussion board-1 credit (BreachForums’ inside foreign money), in addition to without spending a dime. He was reportedly lively from roughly January 2023 to February 2025, with at the very least 41 of his threads promoting information from corporations primarily based within the US.
Of these 158 threads, 16 posts included a selected asking value for the info, reaching a complete of at the very least $2,467,000. Messages allegedly written by West additionally confirmed that he accepted funds by way of privateness coin Monero (XMR).
IntelBroker achieved notoriety on BreachForums to the extent that he was recognized as the location’s proprietor beginning in August 2024.
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Information leaks and breaches proceed taking place
The information follows the current leak of greater than 16 billion login credentials from main on-line service suppliers, which might have potential penalties for cryptocurrency holders. Earlier this month, it was reported that Coinbase was knowledgeable in January that an worker of an outsourcing agency could have leaked buyer information.
The breach was disclosed in mid-Could, when a $20 million extortion try hit Coinbase after cybercriminals recruited abroad help brokers to leak person information. “These insiders abused their entry to buyer help methods to steal the account information for a small subset of shoppers,” Coinbase mentioned on the time.
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