Two Ex-Cyber Pros Get 4-Year Terms in BlackCat Ransomware Case

A federal judge in Florida sentenced two former cybersecurity professionals to four years in prison each on Thursday for their roles in a conspiracy to deploy BlackCat ransomware, also known as ALPHV, against multiple U.S. companies in 2023.

Ryan Goldberg, 40, previously an incident response manager at Sygnia, and Kevin Martin, 36, formerly a ransomware negotiator at DigitalMint, both pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit extortion. They collaborated with a third conspirator, Angelo Martino, 41, also a former DigitalMint employee, who pleaded guilty in April and awaits sentencing on July 9. The trio operated as affiliates of the BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service group, agreeing to pay its administrators 20 percent of ransoms in exchange for access to the malware and extortion platform.

Court documents detail their division of labor: Goldberg obtained initial access to victim networks, Martin stole data and encrypted systems, and Martino managed negotiations while laundering proceeds. Between April and December 2023, they targeted companies including a Florida medical device manufacturer, which paid approximately 1.3 million in Bitcoin after a 10 million demand; a...