FBI Arrests Founder of Ransomware Negotiation Firm

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday arrested the co-founder of a Canadian cybersecurity firm in connection with an investigation into the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently relieved the FBI of sensitive data on thousands of agents, multiple sources tell KrebsOnSecurity. FBI Arrests Founder of Ransomware Negotiation Firm. The New York Times reported today that the FBI has arrested a Canadian man in Pennsylvania on suspicion of assisting ShinyHunters.

The Times story did not identify the man, nor did a statement on Twitter/X about the arrest from FBI Director Kash Patel. One source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity the Canadian person arrested this week was visiting Pennsylvania for a cyber insurance conference, and that the suspect’s company specialized in handling ransomware negotiations with cybercrime groups. Another shared that control over the ShinyHunters investigation has been centralized at an FBI field office in Texas.

An online search reveals the Cyber Risk Summit was held at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel between Oct. The conference had several sponsors, but according to the summit’s website its biggest sponsor was a Canadian security company called Cypfer. According to LinkedIn, Cypher was co-founded by a Canadian man named Edward Dubrovsky, who is now associated with another Canadian security firm called CyberSteward.