Two US Cybersecurity Pros Plead Guilty Over Ransomware Attacks

Two US cybersecurity professionals have pleaded guilty to charges linked to BlackCat/Alphv ransomware attacks, according to the Justice Department. Kevin Martin from Texas and Ryan Goldberg from Georgia, who worked as ransomware negotiators at DigitalMint and incident response manager at Sygnia respectively, admitted conspiracy to commit extortion.

The three suspects were described as BlackCat affiliates who hacked into victim systems, stole data and deployed the ransomware, and they were said to receive around 20% of ransoms as payment to the operators. The DOJ said one victim paid a ransom of $1.2 million in Bitcoin. The case notes that more than 1,000 organisations were targeted between November 2021 and December 2023, with the operation disrupted before continuing briefly and then collapsing after a $22 million ransom to Change Healthcare.

Goldberg and Martin face up to 20 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for 12 March 2026, while a Ukrainian Nefilim affiliate’s guilty plea was reported days earlier.