Ryan Goldberg, Ransomware Extortion, Florida 2024

A pair of cybersecurity professionals have been sentenced to prison for their role in a ransomware extortion scheme that targeted multiple U.S. victims.

According to court documents, Ryan Goldberg, 40, of Georgia, and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas, used the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware to extort victims between April 2023 and December 2023. The two men, along with another co-conspirator, Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O'Lakes, Florida, successfully deployed the ransomware against multiple victims located throughout the U.S.

As part of the scheme, Goldberg, Martin, and Martino agreed to pay the ALPHV BlackCat administrators a 20% share of any ransoms received in exchange for access to the ransomware and ALPHV BlackCat's extortion platform. The men laundered their share of the ransoms, which totaled approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin, through various means.

The ALPHV BlackCat group targeted the computer networks of more than 1,000 victims around the world, using a ransomware-as-a-service model in which developers were responsible for creating and updating ransomware and for maintaining the illicit internet infrastructure. Affiliates, including Goldberg, Martin, and Martino, were responsible for identifying and attacking high-value victim institutions with the ransomware.

Goldberg and Martin were sentenced to 4 years in prison for their role in the scheme. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida noted that the men's actions caused significant harm to victim companies, including the leak of patient data from a doctor's office.

The FBI worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office to track down and dismantle the ALPHV BlackCat network, with agents tracking Goldberg through 10 countries as he attempted to flee abroad.

The case is a stark reminder of the dangers of ransomware and the importance of cybersecurity measures to prevent such attacks.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/two-men-who-attacked-multiple-us-victims-using-alphv-blackcat-ransomware-sentenced