From Cyber Defenders to Offenders: The Ransomware Plot Twist of 2023!
Two former cybersecurity employees pleaded guilty to BlackCat ransomware attacks, ironically using their skills to extort instead of protect. Facing up to 20 years in prison, they demanded ransoms ranging from $300,000 to $10 million, but only managed to collect $1.27 million. Extortion may not be the most profitable career choice!
Hot Take:
Well, it appears that some folks in the cybersecurity world really took the idea of “fight fire with fire” a bit too literally. Instead of defending against cyber threats, these former incident response specialists decided to moonlight as digital bandits. Who knew that the real plot twist in the cybersecurity drama would come from inside the house?
Key Points:
- Two ex-employees from Sygnia and DigitalMint plead guilty to BlackCat ransomware attacks.
- They face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion.
- The duo, along with an accomplice, targeted U.S. companies between May and November 2023.
- They paid a 20% share of ransoms to BlackCat for access to their ransomware platform.
- The FBI created a decryption tool after breaching BlackCat’s servers in December 2023.
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