TWO US CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONALS PLEAD GUILTY IN BLACKCAT/ALPHV RANSOMWARE CASE

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

Cybersecurity professionals Ryan Goldberg (former Sygnia incident response manager) and Kevin Martin (DigitalMint ransomware negotiator) pleaded guilty to deploying BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware against multiple US victims from April to December 2023, extorting approximately $1.2M in Bitcoin from a medical device company while sharing 20% of ransoms with operators. The defendants leveraged their cybersecurity expertise to conduct attacks against five companies, with Goldberg later fleeing to Paris after learning of FBI raids on co-conspirators and both facing potential 50-year sentences. The case highlights insider threat risks and the FBI's recommendation for organizations to exercise due diligence when engaging third-party incident response providers.