Lawrence Abrams reports:
An ex-ransomware negotiator is under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly working with ransomware gangs to profit from extortion payment deals.
The suspect is a former employee of DigitalMint, a Chicago-based incident response and digital asset services company that specializes in ransomware negotiation and facilitating cryptocurrency payments to receive a decryptor or prevent stolen data from being publicly released. The company claims to have conducted over 2,000 ransomware negotiations since 2017.
Bloomberg first reported that the DOJ is investigating whether the suspect worked with ransomware gangs to negotiate payments, then allegedly received a cut of the ransom that was charged to the customer.
DigitalMint confirmed that one of its former employees is under criminal investigation and informed BleepingComputer that it terminated the employee after learning of the alleged conduct. The company says that it is not the target of the investigation.
Read more at BleepingComputer.
The Insurer reports that the ex-negotiator was involved in negotiations with BlackCat.