Angelo Martino of Florida has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for conspiring with hackers to develop ransomware while working as a ransomware negotiator for a US cybersecurity company.
The US Department of Justice confirmed the proposal on Thursday, noting that the government seized more than $10 million worth of cryptocurrencies and assets. Martino allegedly bought those assets, which include a food truck and a luxury fishing boat, with money stolen in the hacks.
Martino is the third person to be jailed for the scheme, following the previous jailings of cybersecurity professionals Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg. The trio, prosecutors say, worked together to deploy BlackCat ransomware against companies in the United States in 2023. In one successful attack, cyber professionals posing as criminals extorted a company for about $1.2 million, which they then split three ways after the funds were laundered.
The research highlights a rare case of security professionals working for malicious hackers while on the job. Governments have long advised hacking and extortion victims not to pay ransoms and prevent cybercriminals from taking advantage, although some companies do so anyway in an effort to prevent their customers’ personal data from being leaked.
Ransomware attacks have helped create an entire insurance subsector in the US to respond to ransomware and extortion attacks. Some companies in this space employ negotiators to try to reduce ransom costs.
BlackCat (also known as ALPHV) is a ransomware-as-a-service operation that allows independent hackers, known as affiliates, to rent access to the gang’s file-encrypting malware in exchange for a cut of cyberattack profits.
The group’s ransomware was famously used to steal the highly sensitive medical and billing data of more than 192 million people in America during a February 2024 hack of US health tech giant Change Healthcare, although the hacker partners responsible for the 2024 data breach were never identified.
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