Novo Nordisk Under Cyber Attack, Hackers Threaten to Sell Stolen Data After USD 25 Million Ransom Refusal

Susmita Roy

Novo Nordisk Under Cyber Attack, Hackers Threaten to Sell Stolen Data After USD 25 Million Ransom Refusal

Written By : Susmita Roy Published On 2026-06-17T14:15:46+05:30 | Updated On 17 Jun 2026 2:15 PM IST

Novo Nordisk Under Cyber Attack, Hackers Threaten to Sell 1 TB of Stolen Data After USD 25 Million Ransom Refusal

New Delhi: A cyber extortion gang has claimed responsibility for stealing more than 1 terabyte of sensitive information from pharmaceutical major Novo Nordisk and is now considering selling portions of the data after the company allegedly refused to meet a ransom demand of $25 million.

FulcrumSec, a cyber extortion group that emerged in October 2025, said in a long message posted to its website that it spent more than two months in Novo Nordisk's networks stealing data. It said ‌that data included ⁠company source ⁠code, proprietary information on released and unreleased drugs, trial data, employee, doctor and patient data, information related to company processing facilities and internal AI model information.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in an email that the company "is aware of claims that data allegedly copied externally without authorisation from our systems has been published online. We take this matter seriously and maintain continued operations of our main platforms. We are in contact with the relevant authorities."

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Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the data ⁠posted by ‌the hacking group. FulcrumSec also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Danish company disclosed a cybersecurity incident on June 11 that it said involved unauthorized ⁠access to a limited number of internal IT systems that included access to certain personal data.

FulcrumSec said that after Novo Nordisk refused to pay $25 million, it was "exploring private sales" for some of the data related to certain drugs and other internal data.

Thomas Willkan, head of research at cybersecurity firm Lab-1, who has closely tracked FulcrumSec, said the hacking group is "usually quite legit in terms of both their capabilities and also their claims."

FulcrumSec said it would not share some of the data it stole, including information on thousands of company employees ‌and physicians, and roughly 11,500 pseudonymised clinical trial patients.

The group said it also would withhold data related to operational technology and software used to interact with sensors and machinery at Novo Nordisk production facilities as ⁠part of its "harm-reduction strategy."

Novo Nordisk is known for its treatments for obesity and diabetes, notably Wegovy and Ozempic.

DataBreaches. net, a blog focused on cybersecurity, ransomware and data extortion, reported on June 15 that FulcrumSec told the blog on June 14 it gained access to Novo Nordisk's network in March, and shared purported correspondence with Novo Nordisk starting June 1 that included a list of more than 700,000 files, making up roughly 1.3 terabytes of data.

VX-Underground, a malware research and repository site, reported separately on Monday about an unnamed hacker having compromised Novo Nordisk. FulcrumSec said in its message that its attack is separate.

Also Read:Novo Nordisk Reports Cybersecurity Breach Affecting Clinical Trial Patient Data

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Source : Reuters

Susmita Roy

Mpharm (Pharmacology)

Susmita Roy, B pharm, M pharm Pharmacology, graduated from Gurunanak Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy. She is currently working as an assistant professor at Haldia Institute of Pharmacy in West Bengal. She has been part of Medical Dialogues since March 2021.