Angelo Martino, a former ransomware negotiator, has confessed to aiding cybercriminals in extorting companies during cyberattacks. The U.S. Justice Department announced his guilty plea on Monday, revealing that he had exploited his role at cybersecurity firm DigitalMint to play both sides in negotiations during five separate incidents. While he ostensibly represented the interests of victims, Martino disclosed sensitive information to the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group, such as details about the victims’ insurance policies and negotiation tactics, with an aim to maximise payouts for the criminals, from which he took a commission.
Martino is not the only ransomware negotiator to have faced prosecution; he is the third in the past year implicated in similar schemes. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva commented on Martino’s betrayal, highlighting that he compromised the trust placed in him by clients who sought his assistance in tackling ransomware threats, instead becoming an accomplice to the very criminals he was supposed to thwart.
The ALPHV/BlackCat group operates as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model, developing malware while contractors deploy it in attacks, sharing ransom profits with the developers. Last year, other DigitalMint individuals, including Kevin Tyler Martin and Ryan Clifford Goldberg, were also accused of colluding with the ransomware operators while pretending to work against them.
Martino confessed to engaging in extortion activities and could face a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Law enforcement has already confiscated $10 million in assets linked to him. He admitted to collaborating with Goldberg and Martin in deploying ransomware against US targets for six months in 2023, effectively becoming affiliates of ALPHV/BlackCat and generating over $1.2 million from a single victim.
Upon inquiry, a spokesperson from DigitalMint stated that the company was unaware of Martino’s illegal activities and had terminated his employment along with the other two individuals after becoming aware of the allegations.
In 2023, a coordinated effort by international law enforcement agencies led to the dismantling of the ALPHV/BlackCat dark web leak site, disrupting their operations and providing a decryption tool to assist over 500 victims in recovering their systems.
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