Cencora Faces Backlash Over $75M Bitcoin Cyber Ransom Payment, Here’s Why

Healthcare company Cencora is facing backlash from the crypto community following a $75 million cyber ransom payment in Bitcoin. On-chain analyst revealed the exact BTC transactions in three installments in March. Crypto users advocate tracking hackers and providing more information following the incident. 

Crypto Users Criticize Cencora Over Non-Disclosure

Following a Bloomberg report that hackers involved in Cencora cyber attacks received $75 million worth of Bitcoin, crypto users have raised eyebrows on certain issues about the incident. According to the report, the drug distributor disclosed the cyber hack which saw information stolen from its systems. 

Subsequently, sources familiar with the matter claimed that the ransom payment to the bad actors amounted to $75 million worth of Bitcoin. The fee which was reduced from an initial $150 million demand was paid in three installments in March with affected individuals notified in May. On-chain investigator ZackXBT threw more lights on the Cencora incident on X (formerly Twitter) after the initial report.

I think it’s a bad look when a large publicly traded company like Cencora does not share the BTC transactions for the $75M payment to Dark Angels ransomeware group so I will just post it for them.

296.5 BTC – Mar 7, 2024 at 10:04 pm UTC… https://t.co/24n3J2ubSh pic.twitter.com/aXEx3kHVxz

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 18, 2024

He flagged the company’s non-disclosure of the exact Bitcoin transaction to the Dark Angel ransomware group before revealing the information. Per his findings, the wallets were funded from the same source to accounts with high illicit fund exposure.

“296.5 BTC – Mar 7, 2024 at 10:04 pm UTC e3e203db2752edeb5bb716a77ed30f977bee70b06cefecd69d1c38921ad5d1b2

408 BTC – Mar 8, 2024 at 7:45 pm UTC db4a0742aa2fe67c20f02642bb776fb4140cf32beca43b7552435f5eddb58d92

387 BTC  – Mar 8, 2024 at 9:39 pm UTC bf408baa4d6598a42a6852012fe412514ff7bb70ca8a94deb9865c9b46f19ddf”

Wider Community Suggests More Investigation

After the revelation of the transfers, crypto users suggested tracing the wallets to find the bad actors and recover the assets. This is due to the public nature of blockchain, however, ransomware groups deploy sophisticated laundering processes. Others claimed the Cencora would have spent $75 million on better security to prevent the incident. 

Although the Cencora incident wasn’t a crypto platform scam, several global authorities have flagged crypto being used as a means to move fraudulent payments. Recently, the CFTC announced a partnership to tackle crypto scams and associated matters.