[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f3OKuBN1y0_ULP1Kp19uc1ojkupmk0TWsFNbu_GfW5lQ":3},{"article":4,"iocs":52},{"id":5,"title":6,"slug":7,"summary":8,"ai_summary":9,"brief":10,"full_text":11,"url":12,"image_url":13,"published_at":14,"ingested_at":15,"relevance_score":16,"entities":17,"category_id":29,"category":30,"article_tags":34},"d58162a0-db6f-4355-940d-40c774eae2e6","Ransomware Negotiator Gets 70 Months in Prison for Aiding BlackCat Attacks","ransomware-negotiator-gets-70-months-in-prison-for-aiding-blackcat-attacks-e3c6a6","A 41-year-old former ransomware negotiator has been sentenced to nearly six years (i.e., 70 months) in prison in the U.S. for their role in conspiring with the now-defunct BlackCat ransomware operators to extort multiple victims and working with two other cybersecurity professionals to target additional victims in 2023. In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors described Martino as a \"","Angelo Martino, a former ransomware negotiator, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison in the U.S. for conspiring with the BlackCat ransomware operators. He betrayed his clients by providing confidential information about their negotiating positions to the attackers, enabling them to maximize ransom demands. Martino also colluded with two other cybersecurity professionals to deploy BlackCat ransomware against multiple victims.","Ransomware negotiator sentenced to 70 months for aiding BlackCat attacks.","Ransomware Negotiator Gets 70 Months in Prison for Aiding BlackCat Attacks Ravie LakshmananJul 10, 2026Cybercrime \u002F Law Enforcement A 41-year-old former ransomware negotiator has been sentenced to nearly six years (i.e., 70 months) in prison in the U.S. for their role in conspiring with the now-defunct BlackCat ransomware operators to extort multiple victims and working with two other cybersecurity professionals to target additional victims in 2023. In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors described Martino as a \"double agent working to maximize the harm to his clients and the financial gain to cybercriminals who paid him a part of the ransom.\" Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O'Lakes, Florida, pleaded guilty to one-count information charging him with conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce through extortion back in April. The defendant worked as a negotiator on behalf of five different ransomware victims, while providing BlackCat attackers with confidential information regarding their negotiating position and strategy without their knowledge or permission. This information included details about the victims' insurance policy limits and internal negotiation positions, allowing the operators to maximize the ransom amounts they were required to pay. \"Angelo Martino's victims shared heartbreaking accounts of how their businesses were nearly destroyed, while the people they hired to help them instead betrayed them to ransomware gangs,\" said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division. In addition, Martino was also accused of colluding with Ryan Goldberg, 41, of Georgia, and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas, to successfully deploy BlackCat ransomware between April 2023 and November 2023 against multiple victims located throughout the U.S. Martino and Martin were employed at DigitalMint, while Goldberg was working as an incident response manager for cybersecurity company Sygnia. Both Goldberg and Martin were sentenced to four years each in prison back in May 2026 for carrying out the attacks after pleading guilty to their crimes last December. \"He was hired to help victims in a moment of crisis,\" said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. \"Instead, Martino betrayed them, fed their confidential negotiating positions to ransomware criminals, and helped squeeze them for more money. This case sends a clear message: we will pursue the hackers who deploy ransomware, the insiders who enable them, and the money they steal from American victims.\" The Justice Department said law enforcement has seized $10 million of assets from Martino to date, including digital currency, vehicles, a food truck, and a luxury fishing boat that he purchased from the illicit proceeds. Martino is expected to appear in court on September 17, 2026, to determine the exact amount of restitution to be ordered against him. \"Angelo Martino sold out the very victims he was hired to represent, handing their confidential negotiating positions to BlackCat actors to drive up ransoms and enrich himself,\" said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of the FBI Cyber Division. Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News, Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE     Tweet Share Share Share SHARE  Cybercrime, cybersecurity, data theft, digital currency, Extortion, Fraud, Incident response, insider threat, law enforcement, ransomware ⚡ Top Stories This Week ThreatsDay: AI Compute Hijacking, Apple Email Flaw, BlueHammer Ransomware + 14 Stories Chrome Ad Blocker with 10M+ Installs Found with Dormant Script Injection Capability New DirtyClone Linux Kernel Flaw Lets Local Users Gain Root via Cloned Packets Amazon Q Developer Flaw Could Let Malicious Repos Run Code via MCP Configs New Linux pedit COW Exploit Enables Root Access by Poisoning Cached Binaries OpenAI Previews GPT-5.6 Sol With Restricted Access and Stronger Cyber Safeguards FBI Warns Russian Intelligence Hackers Target Signal Backup Recovery Keys Public PoC Released for Critical libssh2 CVE-2026-55200 Client-Side SSH Flaw Microsoft Removes 119 Edge Extensions That Hid Malware in Images and Fonts ⚡ Weekly Recap: Linux Kernel Flaws, AI Malware Tricks, Turla Backdoor, Infostealers and More Mustang Panda Uses Zoho WorkDrive as Command Channel in Indian Government Attacks WhatsApp is Finally Getting Usernames to Help Keep Phone Numbers Private Oracle E-Business Suite Flaw CVE-2026-46817 Actively Exploited in the Wild New BioShocking Attack Tricks AI Browsers Into Leaking User Credentials AirDrop and Quick Share Flaws Let Nearby Attackers Trigger Crashes and Bypass Checks 282 iOS AI Apps Leak API Keys and Open AI Proxy Access in Network Traffic Study GuardFall Exposes Open-Source AI Coding Agents to Decades-Old Shell Injection Risks Microsoft Warns Poisoned MCP Tool Descriptions Can Make AI Agents Leak Data RustDuck Botnet Rebuilds in Rust to Hijack Routers and Servers for DDoS ⭐ Featured Resources What 200+ Security Teams Reveal About Using IP Intelligence in 2026 Get Hands-On SANS Training for Today’s Cyber Defense and Offensive Security Challenges See What’s Really Exposed Across Your IT, OT, IoT, Cloud, and Mobile Assets Get Gartner’s Guide to AI Agent Supervision and Runtime Controls","https:\u002F\u002Fthehackernews.com\u002F2026\u002F07\u002Fransomware-negotiator-gets-70-months-in.html","https:\u002F\u002Fblogger.googleusercontent.com\u002Fimg\u002Fb\u002FR29vZ2xl\u002FAVvXsEjMMfAeNe_4YwD_9txUToRE4uGigzg48NOJjGKREMneC5B57ROnoCbTMO-4rUiFu76ZsmJwizj28wLcHWmkuRQaQYxUFtWfrfWh3OyqFz61J7sk62rGkVO8jyP_-enVjRDhjYxWOyenL_ToZ3uVusHEuedtF63JPmcwCw_K2UieFO53HqI-yr5RBYWToxEb\u002Fs1600\u002FRansomware-Negotiator.jpg","2026-07-10T08:10:12+00:00","2026-07-10T10:00:17.231973+00:00",9,[18,21,24,27],{"name":19,"type":20},"BlackCat","threat_actor",{"name":22,"type":23},"BlackCat ransomware","product",{"name":25,"type":26},"DigitalMint","vendor",{"name":28,"type":26},"Sygnia","7d8b5ab8-ea0b-4ced-ae97-ec251b86993a",{"id":29,"icon":31,"name":32,"slug":33},null,"Ransomware","ransomware",[35,40,45,47],{"category":36},{"id":37,"icon":31,"name":38,"slug":39},"2e06f76c-d5b9-4f54-9eef-4d3447b10730","Breaches","breaches",{"category":41},{"id":42,"icon":31,"name":43,"slug":44},"6cbdd207-aaa1-4176-9534-e156b125e917","Nation-state","nation-state",{"category":46},{"id":29,"icon":31,"name":32,"slug":33},{"category":48},{"id":49,"icon":31,"name":50,"slug":51},"c5eccf7c-abbc-4bd3-bbed-e6da5cba8e73","Incident Response","incident-response",[]]