Marc Bleicher is a hostage negotiator — but he’s not trying to rescue human hostages, he’s trying to rescue data. Bleicher, managing director at cybersecurity consulting firm Arete Advisors, is a specialist who helps companies deal with ransomware — the type of cyberattack in which hackers lock up a company’s computers and then demand payment to undo the encryption. He has given CNBC a rare and exclusive look inside a shadowy world where American companies find themselves paying millions of dollars to known criminals. It’s a corner of the criminal underworld that has seen explosive growth. According to a report by ... (full story)