Two Cybersecurity Professionals Sentenced for Facilitating BlackCat Ransomware Attacks
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) sentenced two cybersecurity professionals Ryan Goldberg, 40, of Georgia, and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas to four years in prison for their roles in deploying BlackCat ransomware against U.S. victims between April and December 2023. Both pleaded guilty in December 2025 to conspiring with Angelo Martino, 41, of Florida, in a scheme that involved paying BlackCat administrators a 20% cut of ransom payments in exchange for access to the ransomware and its extortion platform.
Goldberg, an incident response manager at cybersecurity firm Sygnia, and Martin, an employee of DigitalMint, leveraged their industry expertise to execute the attacks rather than prevent them. Martino, who also worked at DigitalMint, pleaded guilty last week and is scheduled for sentencing in July 2026. He allegedly exploited his role as a negotiator by disclosing victims’ insurance policy limits to BlackCat operators to secure higher payouts.
In one case, the group extorted approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin from a victim, splitting their 80% share among themselves before laundering the funds. While the BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has since disbanded, it is estimated to have targeted over 1,000 victims worldwide.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones stated that the defendants "exploited specialized cybersecurity knowledge not to protect victims, but to extort them," using ransomware to lock systems, steal data, and coerce payments from businesses.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/two-cybersecurity-professionals-get-4.html
Black Cat Security cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/blackcat-security
"id": "BLA1777638523",
"linkid": "blackcat-security",
"type": "Ransomware",
"date": "4/2023",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization's existence"{'affected_entities': [{'location': 'U.S.', 'type': 'Businesses'}],
'attack_vector': 'Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS)',
'data_breach': {'data_encryption': 'Yes', 'data_exfiltration': 'Yes'},
'description': 'The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) sentenced two '
'cybersecurity professionals Ryan Goldberg, 40, of Georgia, '
'and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas to four years in prison for '
'their roles in deploying BlackCat ransomware against U.S. '
'victims between April and December 2023. Both pleaded guilty '
'to conspiring with Angelo Martino in a scheme that involved '
'paying BlackCat administrators a 20% cut of ransom payments '
'in exchange for access to the ransomware and its extortion '
'platform. The group extorted approximately $1.2 million in '
'Bitcoin from a victim, splitting their 80% share among '
'themselves before laundering the funds.',
'impact': {'data_compromised': 'Data stolen and encrypted',
'financial_loss': '$1.2 million (one victim case)',
'operational_impact': 'Systems locked, data extortion'},
'investigation_status': 'Closed (sentencing completed)',
'motivation': 'Financial gain',
'post_incident_analysis': {'root_causes': 'Exploitation of cybersecurity '
'expertise for malicious purposes, '
'insider involvement in ransomware '
'operations'},
'ransomware': {'data_encryption': 'Yes',
'data_exfiltration': 'Yes',
'ransom_paid': '$1.2 million (one victim case)',
'ransomware_strain': 'BlackCat'},
'references': [{'source': 'U.S. Department of Justice'}],
'regulatory_compliance': {'legal_actions': 'Criminal charges and sentencing'},
'response': {'law_enforcement_notified': 'Yes (U.S. Department of Justice)'},
'threat_actor': ['Ryan Goldberg', 'Kevin Martin', 'Angelo Martino'],
'title': 'Two Cybersecurity Professionals Sentenced for Facilitating BlackCat '
'Ransomware Attacks',
'type': 'Ransomware'}