At the beginning of the year, two former employees of cybersecurity companies pleaded guilty to having carried out a series of ransomware attacks in 2023, using their technical knowledge to extort various U.S. companies. This led them to be sentenced at the end of April to 4 years in prison.
The two defendants, Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin (aged 40 and 36 respectively), used the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware to encrypt systems and seize sensitive information, relying on a third man.
The identity of this accomplice has been made public, as well as his sentence. He is Angelo Martino, 41 years old and a resident of Florida.
This hacker also acknowledged his involvement in the events a few months ago and was sentenced last Thursday to 70 months in prison (almost six years behind bars).
Of this trio, two of them (including Martino) worked as ransomware negotiators to help victims, although this was a cover, as they were actually helping the cybercriminals in exchange for a share of the ransoms.
A little discount
Investigators have revealed that this third collaborator began working with the operators of the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware in April 2023, lending a hand to the hackers to extort at least five victims.
The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that Martino was on BlackCat’s payroll to “provide confidential information about the negotiation position and strategy of his employer’s clients, and enable the ransomware operators to maximize the ransoms paid by the victims.”
Authorities have seized assets from this negotiator and double agent worth 10 million dollars, including cryptocurrencies, vehicles, a food truck, and a fishing boat. Additionally, he will also have to pay compensation, the amount of which will be determined at a hearing scheduled for September.
Between 2021 and December 2023 (when the extortion group was dismantled), more than a thousand organizations were attacked by this operation.
