{"id":209151,"date":"2026-05-04T07:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/two-cybersecurity-pros-get-prison-time-for-helping-ransomware-gang\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:25:24","slug":"two-cybersecurity-pros-get-prison-time-for-helping-ransomware-gang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/two-cybersecurity-pros-get-prison-time-for-helping-ransomware-gang\/","title":{"rendered":"Two cybersecurity pros get prison time for helping ransomware gang"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two cybersecurity pros get prison time for helping ransomware gang<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.helpnetsecurity.com\/2026\/05\/04\/cybersecurity-experts-alphv-blackcat-ransomware-sentenced\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-04 07:08:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.helpnetsecurity.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
\n Two American cybersecurity professionals were sentenced to four years in prison for facilitating BlackCat ransomware attacks in 2023. <\/p>\n

They pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of conspiracy to obstruct, delay, or affect commerce, or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by extortion.
\nAccording to court documents, Ryan Goldberg, Kevin Martin, and their co-conspirator Angelo Martino deployed ALPHV\/BlackCat ransomware between April and December 2023 against multiple victims across the United States. They agreed to pay ALPHV\/BlackCat administrators a 20% share of any ransoms received in exchange for access to the ransomware and its extortion platform. After extorting approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin from one victim, they split the remaining share and laundered the proceeds.
\nALPHV\/BlackCat targeted computer networks of more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. The group operated a ransomware-as-a-service model in which developers built and maintained the malware and supporting infrastructure, while affiliates selected targets and carried out attacks. Ransom payments were split between developers and affiliates.
\n\u201cThese defendants exploited specialized cybersecurity knowledge not to protect victims, but to extort them,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones for the Southern District of Florida.
\n\u201cThey used ransomware to lock down critical systems, steal sensitive data, and pressure American businesses into paying to regain access to their own information. Today\u2019s sentence of four years reflects not only the scale of this scheme, but the real harm inflicted on businesses, employees, and victims whose private information was weaponized for profit. In this District, cybercriminals will face federal prison and forfeit the proceeds of their crimes,\u201d Reding Qui\u00f1ones continued.
\nThis case follows the Justice Department\u2019s December 2023 actions against ALPHV\/BlackCat ransomware. The FBI developed a decryption tool that helped victims restore their systems, saving an estimated $99 million in ransom payments. The agency also seized several websites operated by the group at the time.
\n\u201cGoldberg and Martin leveraged their technical skills and cyber security knowledge to extort millions from victims across the U.S., but the FBI\u2019s global reach ensured that they ultimately faced justice. When Goldberg sought to flee abroad and escape prosecution, the FBI tracked him through 10 countries, demonstrating the lengths we will go to hold cyber criminals accountable and protect victims,\u201d said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of the FBI\u2019s Cyber Division.
\nAngelo Martino pleaded guilty in April 2026 to the same charge. He also used his role as a ransomware negotiator to share confidential victim information with threat actors to increase ransom demands. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9.<\/p>\n

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

Two cybersecurity pros get prison time for helping ransomware gang https:\/\/www.helpnetsecurity.com\/2026\/05\/04\/cybersecurity-experts-alphv-blackcat-ransomware-sentenced\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-04 07:08:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.helpnetsecurity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/28154433\/sentence-court3-1500.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,32],"class_list":["post-209151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity","tag-malware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209151"}],"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=209151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209153,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209151\/revisions\/209153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}