US Probes Whether Negotiator Took Slice of Hacker Payments (msn.com) 12
An anonymous reader shares a report: Law enforcement officials are investigating a former employee of a company that negotiates with hackers and facilitates cryptocurrency payments during ransomware attacks, according to a statement from the firm, DigitalMint. DigitalMint President Marc Jason Grens this week told organizations it works with that the US Justice Department is examining allegations that the then-employee struck deals with hackers to profit from extortion payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Grens did not identify the employee by name and characterized their actions as isolated, said the person, who spoke on condition that they not be identified describing private conversations. DigitalMint is cooperating with a criminal investigation into "alleged unauthorized conduct by the employee while employed here," Grens said in an email to Bloomberg News. The Chicago-based company is not the target of the investigation and the employee "was immediately terminated," Grens said, adding that he can't provide more information because the probe is ongoing.
Grens did not identify the employee by name and characterized their actions as isolated, said the person, who spoke on condition that they not be identified describing private conversations. DigitalMint is cooperating with a criminal investigation into "alleged unauthorized conduct by the employee while employed here," Grens said in an email to Bloomberg News. The Chicago-based company is not the target of the investigation and the employee "was immediately terminated," Grens said, adding that he can't provide more information because the probe is ongoing.
This summary is an absolute disaster (Score:1)
Law enforcement officials are investigating a former employee of a company that negotiates with hackers and facilitates cryptocurrency payments during ransomware attacks, according to a statement from the firm, DigitalMint. DigitalMint President Marc Jason Grens this week told organizations it works with that the US Justice Department is examining allegations that the then-employee struck deals with hackers to profit from extortion payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
This sentence reads as if the company negotiates with hackers and facilitates cryptocurrency payments and that they fired an employee for doing their job because they started to get investigated for doing what the company purpose says they do. WTF, Slashdot? Do better.
Re: (Score:2)
He was an employee of a company contracted by a gov agency.
I just rtfa. You don't need to know all that much, I think this says it all:
“A negotiator is not incentivized to drive the price down or to inform the victim of all the facts if the company they work for is profiting off the size of the demand paid. Plain and simple,” said James Taliento, chief executive of the cyber intelligence se
Why shouldn't a negotiator take a slice? (Score:1)
Are they a charity? An escrow company, an attorney or private investigator would.
Re: (Score:1)
The negotiator was an employee of the company facilitating the extortion payment. That employee was already being paid by that company.
In theory, the "slice" that the negotiator secretly took for himself was money that the victim company should not have had to pay - since it wasn't going to the ones doing the extortion. One could even make the case that the negotiator was a "second extortionist", extracting additional payment from the victim, over and above what the original extortionist demanded.
On the oth
is the negotiator an 1099 contractor if so then th (Score:2)
is the negotiator an 1099 contractor if so then that broker may have an hard time telling the negotiator how to do there job.
Also there are jobs where workers take an commission.
is at an Law enforcement issue if someone brokering an deal takes an kickback from one side?
Re: (Score:2)
What part of "employee" is not clear?
what about reimbursement + CC points (Score:2)
Say the employee used there own CC card to buy crypto (say not allowed to buy any crypto on corporate CC cards) But for the times where they need to it's ok to use an employees own account and they get full reimbursement. Is it an law issue for that employee to get to keep the CC points as well?
Re: Why shouldn't a negotiator take a slice? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
But the employee is doing side business with his employers client. That's conflict of interest, at least.
Sure it is.
Probably one of the reasons the person is no longer an employee with that company.
Never say NO to a hostage taker – it’s (Score:2)
Never say NO to a hostage taker – it’s in the negotiation manual!
so if the hostage takers wants the Negotiator to get an cut then you do it!
Of course. (Score:2)
The outfits that do ransomware negotiations remain legal; because for some reason that's one area where nobody bats an eye at you doing business with transnational criminal syndicates; but they are basically just bagmen who take a cut of the deal for interacting with the disreputable ransomware guys for you. In this case, apparently one of the employees wanted a larger percentage of the cut than he w