Cyber incident responders who carried out ransomware attacks given 4-year sentences

Two cybersecurity incident responders and an associate abused their roles to launch ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware attacks between April and December 2023; two pleaded guilty and were sentenced to four years, while a third pleaded guilty and faces up to 20 years. The conspirators successfully extorted one company for $1.2M, facilitated coordination with ransomware gangs to maximize ransoms (some negotiations reached up to $26M), caused a patient data leak, and had about $10M in assets seized; affected firms have implemented stricter negotiation controls and oversight.