{
  "id": 13497494,
  "title": "Florida cybersecurity owner accused of secretly paying hackers over $8 million",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/florida-cybersecurity-owner-accused-of-secretly-paying-hackers-over-8",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-10T18:22:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Times of India",
    "slug": "times-of-india",
    "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/florida-cybersecurity-owner-accused-of-misleading-ransomware-victims-prosecutors-allege-his-firm-charged-them-over-19-million-while-secretly-paying-hackers-more-than-8-million/articleshow/134786872.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A Florida cybersecurity firm, MonsterCloud, is accused of secretly paying hackers over $8 million while charging clients substantially more for data recovery services, according to federal prosecutors. Zohar Pinhasi, the 50-year-old owner of MonsterCloud, is facing wire fraud charges for allegedly deceiving clients about the company's ability to decrypt ransomware-encrypted files without payment. Prosecutors allege that Pinhasi claimed to have proprietary tools for decryption, but instead paid the cybercriminals behind the attacks and collected more than $19 million in fees from clients.",
  "summary": "Zohar Pinhasi, the owner of MonsterCloud, faces charges of wire fraud related to his cybersecurity business. Prosecutors allege he misrepresented his firm's capabilities to clients facing ransomware attacks. Instead of recovering data without ransom payment, he secretly paid attackers and charged clients significantly higher fees. Pinhasi allegedly collected over $19 million while paying more…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}