So I'm no fan of stealing data, per se. Darknet markets are one thing. You're buyers and sellers,
right? They make their own choices. It's consensual, basically, between both parties,
in that particular case. But taking someone's personal information without their permission,
definitely in my opinion, crosses a line, as does basically any crime with an actual victim.
Now, that said, I respect the intellect that it actually takes to be a threat actor,
because it takes a lot. And I would say that Intel Broker had it in spades. Over the years,
I knew him. And I like to think I knew him fairly well. He was always honorable,
straightforward, and generous for this time for anyone that needed help or had questions.
Even threat actors can have honor. And his story is one that I feel deserves to be told,
unfortunately, we won't have time to actually do that here.
Now, on June 9th of 2025, I received a fairly expected message through one of my privacy-centric
communication channels that I actually have. A mutual friend had facilitated the actual
contact. And the message was really straightforward and simple. It just said,
Hi, Sam, it's me, IB. Now, even though I expected it, I needed to actually verify it was actually him.
We always kind of default to the don't trust verify model that I always say.
He didn't have access to PGP, but we had something else. We had shared memories and
shared secrets. I asked him some questions that I knew only he would have the answers to
and he aced them. Then I asked him to delete the answers to maintain security, which would help out
if the phone hadn't been compromised and say the guards found it afterwards.
This whole conversation took place with him sitting in a prison cell. But anyways,
I had him delete the answers to maintain that. So if the phone got taken or whatever,
they wouldn't have those shared secrets, which he did without argument.
And Intel broker told me that he was okay, but that he had been planning a trip up north and
accidentally crossed into Finland, where he got checked at the border, which makes sense and
arrested. And this is a man who breached your poll, right? He owned breach forms for a short
period of time and penetrated Fortune 500 companies like they were basically running
on Wordpress with default settings. He was messaging me from a German prison cell at
the time. Okay, so this is the cell. There's my cell next to it. Here's the door. Here's the window.
So I take you back to December 16th of 2024, when I actually sat down with Intel broker
for what would become unbeknownst to him and me, his final interview as a free man.
We'd been talking for years after he actually reached out as a fan of this channel that you're
watching, which blew my mind. The hands down, I have so many of you out there that are like,
I would say like infinitely more qualified and interesting than I am. But
it's just crazy how awesome the subscribers are on this channel. Anyways, here's this guy who
compromises like major corporations. He kicks governments to the teeth. He's pounding on
Ellie on a regular basis and for fun in a lot of cases. And in his side time, he's watching my
YouTube videos, which is awesome. The interview actually revealed some brilliance, but definitely
also revealed him actually burning out. And he said that in the interview, if you want to go back
and see it, you'll see what I'm talking about. I asked him why he got into hacking. He didn't
give me some massive manifesto about fighting the system and fighting the man. He just
basically said it was for money, for living expenses and rent, for keeping a roof over his head.
And I think a lot of us can definitely vibe with that statement because I think a lot of people
are in that position right now. And that's just the reality that most people, I think,
don't really understand about people like him. They're incredibly brilliant. Many are down to
earth. And this is what they can do. So it's what they do. He credited his abilities to Asperger's,
saying it gave him the focus and pattern recognition needed for work. Whether true or not,
I don't really know. He was already talking about wanting to get out when he was mentioning
stuff like legitimate work, like red teaming or bug hunting and starting a family. The burnout
basically was real and eating at him. As someone who broke the law and created businesses from a
scratch, I can say that doing it legally now from my standpoint is much easier. Like you pay
less than taxes, which I know sounds insane, but really, it's true in the long run. When the
feds bust you, they take everything. You're keeping anything. Plus, you have restitution
and then you have to work for 12 cents an hour while you're incarcerated
or you go to solitary. So there's that. Anyways, we fast forward to the actual arrest,
right? February 22nd, 2025. And French authorities working with the FBI arrested
Intel broker at, or that's like the public story that we're getting fed anyways by them.
I personally don't know how much truth there is to that. I tend to have a healthy distrust
for federal forces in general. I don't want to say I don't think it's true, but based on what I heard
from him, there's a chance that it might be. Like the feds lie even in France, right? So Intel
broker had been living in Russia for years, a really kind of classic move for cyber-crimerosis.
Since Russia doesn't really extradite to the United States and generally we use you alone
if you don't target Russian interests, including to be a Serbia national,
which added another layer to the judicial complexity. I should say since Serbia really
isn't eager to ship people to American federal prisons for crimes. So from this relatively
safe position, he essentially orchestrated some of the most significant breaches
that I've actually witnessed. I don't want to say in real time, but I've seen disclosed in real time.
Now I don't mean like size-wise. I mean like inconsistency because it was right on a regular
basis and with kind of hardened targets. So he ended up crossing the border in Finland.
And from how we phrased it, it seemed accidental. It didn't seem intentional. So Finland had
basically closed all its borders with Russia in December of 2023. That was because they were claiming
that Moscow was basically weaponizing migration. The entire 1340 kilometer border is now one of
the most monitored front lines in Europe with stuff like thermal cameras and sensors and
arm guards and all that kind of stuff. And Intel broker basically tried to cross it, which
makes absolute sense if you know who he is. He's gonna try to break in. And his prison messages
that he sent basically gives clues about why someone operationally careful most of the time,
because we don't actually know how we got busted, the price something stupid. It's always
something stupid. I just hope it's not something like it's obvious, like
ridiculously obvious. Anyways, I digress. Like he had mentioned stuff like mental health issues and
needing to stay in Germany for medical reasons. He cited stress and anxiety. And that makes sense
given what he's going through. It was the first time he's been incarcerated. And everyone has
those feelings. I published our actual interview on April 15th of 2025. By then he had already
been in custody for like two months or something. According to, if we listen to them, nobody in the
scene, just sever crime scene, actually knew. And that's myself included. I released it
when breach forms went dark, because it was a great time to release it, right? Like it was
advantageous to release it at that point. And I called it a shutdown, not a seizure, because
there was really no federal banner and the feds love to flag their victories. Like,
that's kind of their thing. So the forms went absolutely crazy with speculation,
of course, telegram where no threat actor should be as a bunch of threat actors.
But people analyzed his last post and everything basically kind of looking for clues. And from
my perspective, it was kind of simple, like he just clearly said in the interview that he was
tired and basically wanted to retire. And that's what I took it as, right? Like that interview
was recorded in December of 2024. So he, at that point, probably was already starting to retire.
And that's why he chilled out on posting. He really didn't post much from that point on, on
breach forms. At that point, he did kind of retire and he stepped back and then
breach forms basically took itself down. And then they tried saying that they, well,
we took it down because there was a zero day and might have made the form vulnerable. Like,
yes, no, it's a zero day. Why don't you just look at what it exploits and patch it? Like,
if there's no patch, like, and who's just going to stumble upon the zero day? And I never even
disclosed what it was. And I guess side issue, he had already basically been retired then, right?
So while the cyber community kind of spun all these different ideas of what it could be,
he was kind of learning firsthand that European detention facilities
vary wildly in their treatment of prisoners, especially high profile ones like himself.
They'd been moving him constantly. And the feds call this diesel therapy. We call it dead here in
the US because the smell of the bus fumes that you have to get on and endure for hours,
basically, when you're in the bus being transported. So when I got that message on
June 9th, I gave him a bunch of legal advice. And I had to be certain though that it was him,
like I said before, and federal agencies basically love to try and fake personas
to try and map networks and gather intel and even through facilitating third parties
that seem trustworthy, right? Trust just isn't enough, right? So once verified,
the full picture really came into play. He had sent a video of his cell and so I'd started
analyzing that, like what kind of cells allow for hot blades, work at a beam, and I did a lot of
OSINT basically is what it boils down to. I was able to see outside of his window, I could see the
kind of buildings and he had a phone. So what I had asked him after looking at all these
buildings and stuff, and I'd gotten it kind of narrowed down to a couple of different countries,
but that's obviously a massive net. So I had asked him, hey, can you open up Google map?
So based off that, I was actually able to figure out where he was based on the view
of him like in position to where in the prison was. It wasn't really useful to me,
but it was an interesting experiment to try to confirm that he was really there.
So with all that information, this is where he was. So originally, I'd actually been connected to
him through a third party and the third party was a trustworthy source, right? Like, I think,
anyways, I've known them for a while too, but you know, went through anyways, verified with
with Intel broker and kind of the, I saw like the full picture at that point. He was in a
German detention facility, high security facility, facing extradition to Israel or the United States
with multiple countries competing for him. And by the sound of it, France won that auction.
This is the international equivalent of basically excited people at a hanging yelling obscenities
as someone's about to get hung, right? Like, but they all want to be able to
want to pull a switch and be the one to hang them. So US federal prison, if he went there,
means at least 25 years, like minimum based on my assessment of hypothetically what the charges
would be. If they actually launch a criminal complaint or indictment, then I'll actually
be able to get a more realistic view of it. But they get them, they're going to hit them
as hard as they can. And it's going to be something like 25, probably a least. But
Israel detention, on the other hand, operates on a completely different level altogether.
Like, and I told him straight that like, in Israel, though, they're going to start with torture
like sensory deprivation, starvation, beatings, medical experiments, grape, all of these things
are documented facts from the UN, the Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.
It's not just like something I made up. So I gave him the best advice that I could,
starting off with really simple stuff like go to court, clean, shave your face, don't laugh,
don't joke, don't smile, like don't let the judge think that you think that this is a game.
Document everything. The arrest date, what they said, timeline of events, all that kind of stuff.
And also frame everything in a humanitarian kind of concern about Israeli detention,
citing UN reports and the European Convention on Human Rights, emphasize that
he wasn't fleeing but seeking due process. Stick to the actual story that he told in the
interview basically about being retired because that'll show that he wasn't actually a criminal
at the point of him actually getting caught, which matters. All these things matter.
So I told him exactly how to frame it. I gave him quotes. I told him to say basically,
I understand both the United States and Israel seek my extradition and I respectfully request
this court prioritizes the United States based on humanitarian grounds and procedural
consequences. Now our friendship over the years of correspondence that we've had it has
been really interesting. Intel Broker basically repeatedly offered to help me
a bunch of different ways and crazy amounts of generosity, right? Like six figures kind of
stuff. And yeah, I had to turn them down every time. And we'd have long discussions about
me grinding and him battling with stuff like alcoholism. But it was really cool that like
whenever I hit a rough patch, hit offer to something and the offer is enough. Like I
always declined and not because like I didn't need help or like because I was too proud to
take any help. It would have made my life a lot easier to be honest. But like
it's because the United States conspiracy laws are just brutal. They're absolutely
unforgiving and it's a catch all to wrap people up. So accepting money from, for example,
a cybercriminal knowingly basically puts you in part of the conspiracy in a federal
prosecutor's eyes essentially. But those offers revealed like who he was beyond the
hacker persona for me, right? Like this wasn't some cartoon villain cackling while stealing your data.
This was someone who saw a friend struggling and wanted to help someone who they saw was
was actually worth it. Someone who despite operating in like a really distrustful world,
right? Full of mistrust and paranoia maintained his human connections and human dignity. And
again, even though I never accepted it was like it's the offer alone that really
meant a lot coming from someone like him. Now our last exchange was June 15th and I
basically sent him message saying are you there and got nothing. Not that day and nothing
since and that's really sucked. Intel Broker who maintained a presence across multiple platforms
for years like the guy who survived FBI takedowns and had went and taken the site back from the
FBI when they seized breach forms the very last time had completely gone dark and maybe
he was transferred. Maybe they found his phone. Maybe his lawyers got through to him.
Either way, his silence to me really hit differently than previous absences. 10 days later on June 25th,
2025, social media exploded with claims that Intel Broker had been arrested. The problem
essentially was that he was locked up and had been since February again or so they say.
The French administrators were arrested on June 23rd and had probably been under surveillance
since February. Using stuff like confusion as a weapon is really kind of straight out of
the Fed's playbook. Now Intel Broker's story is ultimately about the cost of living outside
of the law in general. And you'd say he made money probably millions. I wouldn't doubt that.
He definitely proved corporate security is often just security theater and he built an empire with
breach forms which he came to own, started off as a mod and built his way up in commanded
respect across the global cyber crime ecosystem. But what did it cost him?
What could he have done with that intelligence that wouldn't have cost him essentially his life?
It'd definitely be his life if he goes to Israel and it'll be a life sentence if he goes to the United
States. So kind of either way, it's just, it's going to suck. But he endured years of paranoia,
never knowing if the knock would be federal agents, never able to fully trust anyone. Living
in countries chosen for non extradition, treaties rather than kind of quality of life
and watching legitimate opportunities pass by because accepting them would mean exposure.
And during our December interview, he basically told me straight up that the mental stress and
paranoia just aren't worth it in the long run. Having been on the run from law enforcement
for 15 years myself, I know the feeling. I totally get it. He warned others about it and even
while being unable to actually escape himself. So I didn't make this video as a like news item,
which I usually do. I made it to basically talk about my friend and not the evil hacker people
see threat actors as and not the guy who broke into your pole or took breach forms back from
the Fed, just a guy, not some scary boogeyman dropping shells everywhere. I told him that I
could file paperwork, chicken, I could absolutely write up stuff and file a form and I would have
done that. And he just really didn't wasn't really up for anything. It seemed like so.
But that's what friends do at the end of the day, in my opinion. And that's true,
especially when one is facing extradition to countries that view hackers as terrorists and
punish them with human rights violations and exchange. So even when logic says distance yourself
or protect yourself or protect your interests. But I tend to not do that. I tend to be loyal
to a fault because at the end of the day, like we're all human. And even the ghosts
that are in the machines are human. And when I warned him about things like Israeli prison
conditions, and that that was the reality of the incarceration there, I think
I don't think I don't know if it actually got through. And that's what that's what really
sucks at the end of the day. You can only tell someone I can tell you about prison,
but you really don't understand it unless you're actually there. It's not something
that can be understood. So like watching Oz or there's a fist fight in the guard,
runs and steps inside like that's, that's make believe land. But you're always better off
expecting the worst. That's what I found and preparing mentally for worst case scenarios,
rather than expecting something better and being disappointed or shocked.
And that's why I tried to shell shock them because that might be his reality.
Like they'll be tons of people talking badly about him now. And that's because he's busted,
pointing out shortcomings, laughing at him. And that's just kind of how it goes, right?
He has a legend for people to make fun of someone like that. It would be like,
I don't know, making fun of Tiger Woods for missing a hole in one or making fun of some
basketball player. I'm not into sports, but I'm saying that's how that's how I see it.
That's just stupid. They do criticize who could never actually do even a core of things that
that person can do. So that's it. And I'm in that case too. If I do an episode,
I'll be criticizing him for some I can't do either. I do hope to find out what it was that
actually got him though, how they connected those pieces. I'm really interested to see that.
Anyways, I do the same thing here with dark net vendors who make dumb offset mistakes.
That's just how it goes. Like until you become non-existent, right? And people move on to the
next headline. All the while, your memory fades until people actually forget you even existed.
I just wanted to show the part that the French authorities didn't actually show.
And that's of a human being that's brilliant enough to penetrate anything security-wise,
but still human enough to need things that require leaving in the shadows.
Now, I wish you'd taken my advice and gone into research or teaching, which I told them
multiple times. And I hope that one day I'll be able to speak to my friend again.
I don't want him to come to the US to serve his time, because they'll give him a crazy amount of
time. But at the same time, I do, because it would be great to be able to actually see him
and say hi and visit with him. Yeah, I'll send him books and all that stuff. But anyways,
that I guess, yeah, it always sucks when goes through a rough patch. He's never mean to me
or cool to me. He's always good to me kind. So it just, to me, it's unfortunate. Another
bunch of you out there are going to be like, well, who's a hugger? Screw that, dude. He stole people's
stuff. And I completely understand that perspective. But anyways, thank you for listening to me ramble
and rant about this. When more news comes out about this, if it does, we don't really know,
I'll definitely cover it here. So in any case, thank you for watching to the end,
and I'll see you in the next video.