Pharma Giant Cencora Reports Data Theft

Cencora, a pharmaceutical giant formerly known as AmerisourceBergen, has confirmed that it experienced a significant cyberattack earlier this month. According to Cencora’s SEC filing, the attack was discovered on February 21, 2024 and involved the exfiltration of data from its IT systems, which may have exposed personal information.

In the SEC filing, Cencora stated: "Upon initial detection of the unauthorized activity, the Company immediately took containment steps and commenced an investigation with the assistance of law enforcement, cybersecurity experts, and external counsel."

Despite the breach, Cencora mentioned that its operations have not yet been materially impacted and its IT systems remain operational. This suggests that the attack was primarily aimed at stealing information rather than disrupting business activities. However, it’s currently unclear what information was stolen, and whether it belonged to customers, employees, or both.

The incident has not yet been claimed by any cybercriminal gang or individual threat actor. But the breach at Cencora is part of a worrying trend of cyberattacks targeting the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, often seen as lucrative targets due to the vast amounts of sensitive data they hold.

However, Cencora has clarified that the attack is not associated with the Change Healthcare breach that caused widespread pharmaceutical billing disruptions. "We have no reason to believe there is a connection between the incident at Change and the unauthorized activity at Cencora," the pharmaceutical company stated.

This incident serves as a reminder of the cybersecurity challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry and showcases the importance of robust security in protecting against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. It also brings to mind previous incidents, such as the HCA Healthcare breach that leaked the data of 11 million patients, and a recent breach of healthcare providers in France that compromised the personal information of 33 million French citizens.