{"id":173602,"date":"2025-12-31T02:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/31\/two-u-s-cybersecurity-professionals-plead-guilty-to-working-as-alphv-blackcat-affiliates\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:50:18","slug":"two-u-s-cybersecurity-professionals-plead-guilty-to-working-as-alphv-blackcat-affiliates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/31\/two-u-s-cybersecurity-professionals-plead-guilty-to-working-as-alphv-blackcat-affiliates\/","title":{"rendered":"Two U.S. Cybersecurity Professionals Plead Guilty to Working as ALPHV\/BlackCat Affiliates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two U.S. Cybersecurity Professionals Plead Guilty to Working as ALPHV\/BlackCat Affiliates<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cyberpress.org\/two-u-s-cybersecurity-professionals-plead-guilty-to-working-asalphv-blackcat-affiliates\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2025-12-31 02:53:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: cyberpress.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
\nIn a startling betrayal of their profession, two U.S. cybersecurity experts have pleaded guilty to orchestrating ransomware attacks against American businesses. <\/p>\n

Ryan Goldberg, 40, of Georgia, and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas, admitted in a federal district court in Southern Florida that they used their specialized skills to hack companies rather than defend them.<\/p>\n

From Defenders to Attackers<\/p>\n

The two men worked as affiliates for the notorious ALPHV\/BlackCat ransomware gang. Between April and December 2023, they leveraged their advanced knowledge of network vulnerabilities to breach victim systems. <\/p>\n

Instead of patching security holes, they exploited them to deploy file-encrypting malware.<\/p>\n

The duo operated under the \u201cRansomware-as-a-Service\u201d (RaaS) model. In this setup, the core BlackCat group provided the malware and infrastructure, while independent affiliates such as Goldberg and Martin identified targets and executed the attacks. <\/p>\n

The arrangement was lucrative: affiliates retained an 80% share of ransom payments, with the remaining 20% going to BlackCat administrators.<\/p>\n

Court documents reveal that the pair, working with an unnamed co-conspirator, successfully extorted approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin from a single victim company. <\/p>\n

After the victim paid the ransom, the trio split their 80% share and laundered the cryptocurrency through multiple channels to obscure the money trail.<\/p>\n

Their actions were part of a broader campaign by ALPHV\/BlackCat, a group responsible for targeting over 1,000 victims globally. <\/p>\n

The gang was known for its ruthless tactics until the U.S. Department of Justice disrupted its operations in December 2023. <\/p>\n

During that operation, the FBI seized the group\u2019s websites and distributed decryption tools that saved victims nearly $99 million in potential ransom payments.<\/p>\n

The transition from security professionals to cybercriminals comes at a high cost. Both Goldberg and Martin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion. <\/p>\n

They are scheduled for sentencing on March 12, 2026, and each faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

The FBI Miami Field Office led the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service. <\/p>\n

Authorities continue to urge organizations to report suspicious activity, emphasizing that cooperation with law enforcement is critical in dismantling these cybercriminal networks. <\/p>\n

Follow us on\u00a0Google News\u00a0,\u00a0LinkedIn\u00a0and\u00a0X\u00a0to Get More Instant Updates.\u00a0Set Cyber Press as a Preferred Source in\u00a0Google.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two U.S. Cybersecurity Professionals Plead Guilty to Working as ALPHV\/BlackCat Affiliates https:\/\/cyberpress.org\/two-u-s-cybersecurity-professionals-plead-guilty-to-working-asalphv-blackcat-affiliates\/ Publish Date: 2025-12-31…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjheeomiwkLq5jyTvJ7o8qRoGEYdQrgnGmZvr-lDllWfwugOBrHBJR0yGedAsvWUoRsyaYh3X6w3rbDdYpV8Vk_BDVO4blJwVx7_4Gn4b0cEtm-pI5RJ9UlQvo0wNc5kZ_tGJlIi1gfBoe1OW_ZGsGZlqDhnwqrhKX4DlpppHzU8ijxcuExcZ_3KgJZZWs\/s1600\/FortiGate%20Devices%20SSO%20Vulnerabilities%20(3)%20(1)%20(1).webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[30,24,32],"class_list":["post-173602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-breach","tag-cybersecurity","tag-malware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173604,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173602\/revisions\/173604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}