Angelo Martino, a Florida man, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for conspiring with hackers to deploy ransomware during his work as a ransomware negotiator for a US cybersecurity company. The US Department of Justice confirmed the ruling on Thursday, noting that the government seized more than $10 million in cryptocurrencies
Angelo Martino, a Florida man, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for conspiring with hackers to deploy ransomware during his work as a ransomware negotiator for a US cybersecurity company.
The US Department of Justice confirmed the ruling on Thursday, noting that the government seized more than $10 million in cryptocurrencies and assets. Martino allegedly purchased these assets, which include a food truck and a luxury fishing boat, with money stolen in the hacks.
Martino is the third person jailed over the scheme, following the previous jailing of cybersecurity professionals Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg. The trio, prosecutors say, worked together to deploy BlackCat ransomware against businesses in the United States throughout 2023. In one successful attack, cyber professionals working as criminals extorted approximately $1.2 million from a company, which they then split into three parts after laundering the funds.
The investigation highlights a rare case of security professionals working for malicious hackers while on the job. Governments have long advised victims of hacking and extortion not to pay any ransom and prevent cybercriminals from profiting; Some companies do it anyway in an attempt to prevent their customers’ private data from being leaked.
Extortion 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 the cost of bailouts.
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 share of the profits from cyberattacks.
The group’s ransomware was used to steal highly sensitive medical and billing data from more than 192 million people in the United States during an attack on American health technology giant Change Healthcare in February 2024, although the affiliated hackers responsible for the 2024 data breach were never identified.
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