What to Expect when Negotiating with Cybercriminals

This article discusses the growing niche of professional ransom negotiators who help victims of ransomware recover data, recounting a case where Proven Data negotiated a settlement (reducing a 30 BTC demand to $60,000) and received decryption keys. It covers negotiation risks (ransom increases, non-delivery of keys), coordination with the FBI, trends such as RDP-targeted attacks and higher ransoms against municipalities, and recommends mitigations including offline backups, immediate network isolation, employee training, and password managers.