Ransomware negotiator pleads guilty to helping ransomware gang

Angelo Martino, a former ransomware negotiator for incident response firm DigitalMint, pleaded guilty to aiding ALPHV/BlackCat by feeding victims' confidential information and negotiation strategies to the ransomware operators, helping deploy ransomware in multiple U.S. incidents during 2023; authorities seized $10 million in assets, reported over $1.2 million extorted from a single victim, and noted that more than 500 ALPHV victims benefited from a released decryption tool after law enforcement disrupted the gang.