KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): Malaysia’s anti-graft agency said on Friday it has seized digital evidence and helped shut down LeakBase’s domain in Malaysia as part of a coordinated international crackdown led by the US authorities. LeakBase, active since 2021, is one of the world’s largest online marketplace for stolen data used in cybercrime activities and hacking tools,

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement on Friday that its special operations division executed a search warrant at a web-hosting solutions company in Kuala Lumpur, where servers linked to the platform were located.

“Cyber forensic examinations confirmed that the LeakBase forum was actively operating through servers hosted at the facility [in Kuala Lumpur], leading to the seizure of digital evidence and the shutdown of the forum’s domain,” the MACC said in a statement.

Investigations found that the platform contained large volumes of compromised account credentials, including email and password combinations commonly used for account takeovers, fraud and other illicit online activities.

The forum had amassed more than 142,000 registered members and over 215,000 messages, alongside an extensive archive of hacked databases originating from numerous high-profile cyber breaches.

Users were able to trade stolen information including credit and debit card numbers, banking details, usernames, passwords and other sensitive personal and corporate data.

The global crackdown formed part of a synchronised enforcement operation conducted on March 3 and 4, involving law enforcement agencies from 14 countries in a coordinated effort facilitated by Europol at its headquarters in The Hague.

Authorities involved in the operation included the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Department of Justice, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, as well as law enforcement agencies from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Australia, Kosovo and Scotland, among others.

The joint operation resulted in arrests, house searches and “knock-and-talk” interventions across multiple jurisdictions, as authorities moved to dismantle the infrastructure supporting the cybercrime marketplace and disrupt its global network of users.

US authorities have seized two Leakbase forum domains— one hosted in Kuala Lumpur — and took control of its data, posting warning messages on the sites and alerting forum members, the Department of Justice said in a separate statement.