Baphomet backs out.

Yesterday we asked, speaking of Baphomet, would-be proprietor of BreachForums, "whom can you trust, if you can't trust someone with a demonological nom-de-hack?" Boy, were we ever wrong.

Baphomet will not bring back BreachForums.

Just hours later, the Record reports, His Infernal Majesty backed out of promises to revive the BreachForums dark web stolen data souk. Baphomet posted yesterday, "This will be my final update on Breached, as I've decided to shut it down. I'm aware this news will not please anyone, but it's the only safe decision now that I've confirmed that the glowies [sic] likely have access to Poms [that is, Pompompurin's] machine." The gentleman added, "Any servers we use are never shared with anyone else, so someone would have to know the credentials to that server to be able to login. I [sic] likely have access to Poms [that is, Pompompurin's] machine feel like I'm put into a position where nothing can be assumed safe, whether its our configs, source code, or information about our users the list is endless. This means that I can't confirm the forum is safe, which has been a major goal from the start of this sh*tshow."

Baphomet will take some time off.

And so, having decided that discretion is the better part of valor, Baphomet plans to take some time off to rest and think, and maybe connect with other like-minded underworld figures. (We were spared the customary pieties about spending more time with his family.) Tim Helming, Security Evangelist at DomainTools, offers a good-riddance. “Score one for the good guys," he wrote. We are always pleased when criminal operations take a hit. In this instance, it is telling that the operator of Breached has looked, possibly too late, to transfer some of their assets to a so-called bulletproof hoster. These hosting providers, which are brazen in their resistance to law enforcement, should be held under high scrutiny, as they harbor some of the worst and most dangerous kinds of content on the Internet.”

So BreachForums seems to be gone, at least for the foreseeable future. The Washington Post quotes some expert opinion to the effect that the closure will make it somewhat more difficult for criminals to sell stolen data, at least in the short term.

There will also be some uncertainty, in criminal circles, as to whether the FBI has the goods on more people than just Pompompurin (allegedly, we say, since of course Pompompurin is entitled to the legal presumption of innocence). But with respect to Mr. Baphomet and the world of criminal bulletproof hosts Domain Tools alluded to, we still say, good hunting, FBI.