Hacking group claims major hack of Novo Nordisk and attempted $25 million extortion

June 16 (Reuters) – A cyber ​extortion group claimed on Tuesday to have stolen more than a terabyte of data from pharmaceutical ‌giant Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab and said it is exploring selling parts of the data after unsuccessfully demanding $25 million from the company.

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.

Novo Nordisk did not immediately respond to a request ​for comment about FulcrumSec’s claims. 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.