In what appears to be the result of an FBI raid, the website ‘LeakedSource.com’ has been taken down as of about mid-January. It was a site we and other professionals referred to in order to find email addresses which might have been compromised.
The site took publicly leaked database of hacked accounts, and sometimes reverse engineered the passwords via decryption (when weak enough) – they then made this information publicly searchable (although access to passwords required payment). This allowed journalist and criminals alike (we leave the distinction to you) – to access accounts which had been leaked/hacked/cracked.
So – is taking the site down a good or a bad thing?
While it was clear that they didn’t initiate the hacks/cracks of companies large + small, they were definitely profiting from then, which leaves the site and site owner in the middle-ground between white-hat and back-hat… they would be a gray-hat type site.
Listen to this WatchGuard video by Corey Nachreiner on the site takedown:
As Cory points out – there is another site where you can check if your credentials have been hacked – that site is: haveIBeenPwned.com