bleepingcomputer.com
By Sergiu Gatlan
December 30, 2025
Two former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint have pleaded guilty to targeting U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks in 2023.
Two former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint have pleaded guilty to targeting U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks in 2023.
33-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg of Watkinsville, Georgia (in federal custody since September 2023), and 28-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin of Roanoke, Texas, who were charged in November, have now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion and are set to be sentenced on March 12, 2026, facing up to 20 years in prison each.
Together with a third accomplice, the two BlackCat ransomware affiliates breached the networks of multiple victims across the United States between May 2023 and November 2023, paying a 20% share of ransoms in exchange for access to BlackCat's ransomware and extortion platform.
Goldberg is a former Sygnia incident response manager, and Martin worked at DigitalMint as a ransomware threat negotiator (just as the unnamed co-conspirator).
"These defendants used their sophisticated cybersecurity training and experience to commit ransomware attacks — the very type of crime that they should have been working to stop," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva. "Extortion via the internet victimizes innocent citizens every bit as much as taking money directly out of their pockets."
According to court documents, their alleged victims include a Maryland pharmaceutical company, a California engineering firm, a Tampa medical device manufacturer, a Virginia drone manufacturer, and a California doctor's office.
While they have demanded ransoms ranging from $300,000 to $10 million, prosecutors said they were only paid $1.27 million by the Tampa medical device company after encrypting its servers and demanding $10 million in May 2023. While other victims also received ransom demands, the indictment does not indicate whether additional payments were made.
As BleepingComputer previously reported, the Justice Department was also investigating a former DigitalMint negotiator in July for allegedly working with ransomware groups. However, the DOJ and FBI did not comment on the investigation, and it is unclear if this case is related to it.
In December 2023, the FBI created a decryption tool after breaching BlackCat's servers to monitor their activities and obtain decryption keys. The FBI also found that the BlackCat operation collected at least $300 million in ransom payments from more than 1,000 victims until September 2023.
In a February 2024 joint advisory, the FBI, CISA, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also warned that Blackcat affiliates were primarily targeting organizations in the U.S. healthcare sector.
Discover how this healthcare breach unfolds and learn crucial defense strategies. Dive into our expert analysis for actionable insights.
Key Takeaways In October 2023, we observed an intrusion that began with a spam campaign, distributing a forked IcedID loader. The threat actor used Impacket’s wmiexec and RDP to install Scree…
RansomHub, which is speculated to have some connection to ALPHV, has stolen 4TB of sensitive data from the beleaguered healthcare company.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday offered up to $10 million for information on the "Blackcat" ransomware gang who hit the UnitedHealth Group's tech unit and snarled insurance payments across America.
"The ALPHV Blackcat ransomware-as-a-service group compromised computer networks of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and worldwide," the department said in a statement announcing the reward offer.
website used by hackers responsible for a breach at UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab has been replaced by a notice saying it has been seized by international law enforcement.
But at least one of the agencies allegedly responsible said it had nothing to do with the seizure, raising the possibility that the hackers - who also go by the moniker ALPHV - faked their own takedown.
A message posted to the website of the Blackcat hacking gang on Tuesday said it had been impounded "as part of a coordinated law enforcement action" by U.S. authorities and other law enforcement agencies. Among the logos of non-American agencies involved were those of Europol and Britain's National Crime Agency.
Developing: Someone claiming to be an “affiliate plus” for AlphV claims they were responsible for the Change Healthcare attack but that AlphV stole the payment Change Healthcare had made and suspended the affiliate’s account.
The affiliate’s claims appeared on Ramp Forum and have been circulating since then. The post can be seen below, via @vx-underground:
The BlackCat ransomware gang is pulling an exit scam, trying to shut down and run off with affiliates' money by pretending the FBI seized their site and infrastructure.
The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang has shut down its servers amid claims that they scammed the affiliate responsible for the attack on Optum, the operator of the Change Healthcare platform, of $22 million.
The transaction, visible on Bitcoin's blockchain, suggests the victim of one of the worst ransomware attacks in years may have paid a very large ransom.
The gang claimed responsibility for a high-profile attack against Change Healthcare Wednesday.
Patients having trouble getting lifesaving meds have the AlphV crime group to thank.
A new Rust-based macOS malware spreading as a Visual Studio update to provide backdoor access to compromised systems uses infrastructure linked to the infamous ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang.
Russian-speaking BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group has claimed to have carried out a cyberattack on Ultra Intelligence and Communications, a US-based company
Le site vitrine de la franchise Alphv/BlackCat affiche désormais un message indiquant qu’il a été saisi par les autorités. Mais une vitrine alternative est en ligne, mais le coup est très sérieux.
The Justice Department announced today a disruption campaign against the Blackcat ransomware group — also known as ALPHV or Noberus — that has targeted the computer networks of more than 1,000 victims and caused harm around the world since its inception, including networks that support U.S. critical infrastructure.
The FBI says it has released a decryption tool allowing hundreds of ALPHV/BlackCat victims to restore their scrambled files.
The ransomware group AlphV reported a victim to the SEC for failing to report a cybersecurity incident, placing government regulators in a precarious position.
Hackers connected to “the Comm,” a nebulous group that includes SIM swappers, are working with ALPHV, a ransomware group that has impacted some of the biggest companies on the planet, including MGM Casinos.
