Cencora Pays $75 Million Ransom in Major Cyberattack

According to Foresight News, hackers targeted pharmaceutical distributor Cencora in a cyberattack, receiving $75 million in ransom payments in Bitcoin over three installments in March. This is the largest known ransom payment to date. Cencora's quarterly report in July revealed $31.4 million in 'other' expenses, primarily due to the cybersecurity incident, though it is unclear what specific costs were covered by this amount. Two months after the incident, Cencora began notifying individuals and authorities that personal data, including names, addresses, birth dates, diagnoses, prescriptions, and medications, had been stolen. In July, cybersecurity firm Zscaler and blockchain analysis company Chainalysis reported that the hacker group Dark Angels received a substantial ransom but did not disclose the victim's identity. Before the Cencora incident, the highest known ransom payment was $40 million, paid by insurance company CNA Financial Corp. in 2021.