https://www.pcmag.com/news/feds-seize-weleakinfocom-for-selling-access-to-stolen-data The FBI has shut down a website that offered hackers easy access to 12 billion records stolen in thousands of data breaches. On Thursday, the Justice Department
announced it had seized the internet domain to WeLeakInfo.com, a site that was cataloging data taken from more than 10,300 data breaches at various companies and websites over the years.
Customers could pay as little as $2 to gain access to the massive trove of data, which was carefully indexed and searchable. In return, subscribers could look up a person's email address to find out what previously leaked passwords, names, phone numbers, and IP addresses had been associated with it.
Because people often re-use the same passwords across various internet accounts, the WeLeakInfo.com site was a handy tool for hackers, who could use the same data to target a victim's email addresses. According to the UK's National Crime Agency, the searchable records paved the way for cyber attacks in the UK, Germany, and the US. Investigators also noticed links with hackers accessing WeLeakInfo.com and buying other hacking tools, including malware. However, on Wednesday, police in Europe arrested two, 22-year-old suspects in Northern Ireland and the Netherlands, who made over £200,000 ($260,465) from the site.
In my opinion having such an open website invited authorities to seize it. I guess stupidity continues to grow on these types of sites.