Former ransomware negotiator sentenced 70 months

A former cybersecurity professional was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison on July -10, 2026, for betraying the companies he was hired to protect by secretly aiding the BlackCat ransomware gang. Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O'Lakes, Florida, pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce through extortion.

According to court documents, Martino abused his position as a ransomware negotiator for the incident response firm DigitalMint, starting in April 2023. While hired to help at least five victim organizations negotiate with hackers, he instead provided the BlackCat group with confidential information, including the victims' insurance policy limits and internal negotiation strategies. This allowed the cybercriminals to extort the maximum possible ransom payments. Prosecutors described Martino as a "double agent working to maximize the harm to his clients and the financial gain to cybercriminals."

The conspiracy expanded to include two other cybersecurity insiders: Kevin Tyler Martin, a coworker at DigitalMint, and Ryan Clifford Goldberg, an incident response manager at the firm Sygnia. Between April and November 2023, the trio acted as BlackCat...