Two former employees of cybersecurity companies, one of whom was a ransomware negotiator, pleaded guilty to carrying out a series of ransomware attacks in 2023. The Department of Justice announced guilty pleas on Tuesday, saying Ryan Goldberg, 40, and Kevin Martin, 36, extorted $1.2 million in Bitcoin from a medical device company and targeted several others.
Goldberg, Martin and an anonymous accomplice were accused of the October attackswhich involved the use of ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware to encrypt and steal data from its victims. As reported by the Chicago Sun-TimesMartin and the third conspirator worked as ransomware negotiators at Digital Mint, a cybercrime and incident response company, while Goldberg was an incident response manager at Sygnia Cybersecurity Services.
ALPHV/BlackCat is a hacking group that uses a ransomware-as-a-service model, in which the developers who maintain the malware often keep a portion of the stolen funds from cybercriminals who use it to attack victims. In 2023, the FBI developed a decryption tool designed to recover data from victims of ALPHV/BlackCat, which has been linked to high-profile attacks on companies such as Bandai Namco, MGM Resorts, Reddit, and UnitedHealth Group.
The Justice Department indictment alleges that Goldberg, Martin and the co-conspirator used the ransomware in an attempt to extort millions of dollars from victims across the United States, including a pharmaceutical company, a doctor’s office, an engineering firm and a drone manufacturer.
“These defendants used their sophisticated cybersecurity training and experience to commit ransomware attacks, the same type of crime they should have been working to stop,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division says in a statement. “The Department of Justice is committed to using all available tools to identify and arrest perpetrators of ransomware attacks wherever we have jurisdiction.”
Goldberg and Martin pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the movement of any article or merchandise in commerce by racketeering.” Their sentencing is scheduled for March 12, 2026, where they will face up to 20 years in prison.
