Pharmaceutical distributor Cencora paid a $75 million Bitcoin ransom in March, setting a new record for ransomware payments

According to ChainCatcher, hackers who carried out a cyberattack on the pharmaceutical distributor Cencora received a ransom payment of $75 million in three installments in Bitcoin this March, as reported by Bloomberg citing informed sources. This is the largest known cyber ransom payment to date. The company reported costs related to the cybersecurity incident in its quarterly report in July, stating that $31.4 million of other expenses were primarily due to cybersecurity incidents related to data breaches. It remains unclear what this amount covers in relation to the cyberattack.

Two months after the incident was disclosed, Cencora began notifying individuals and national authorities that personal data, including names, addresses, birth dates, diagnoses, prescriptions, and medications, had been stolen.

Previously in July, cybersecurity company Zscaler and blockchain analysis firm Chainanalysis stated that the hacker group Dark Angels received a substantial ransom but did not disclose the identity of the victims.

It is reported that the highest known amount of cyber ransom prior to the Cencora incident was $40 million, paid by insurance company CNA Financial Corp. in 2021.