Ransomware Operators Threaten to Leak 1.5TB of Supernus Pharmaceuticals Data

29 November 2021

Ransomware Operators Threaten to Leak 1.5TB of Supernus Pharmaceuticals Data

Biopharmaceutical company Supernus Pharmaceuticals last week confirmed it fell victim to a ransomware attack that resulted in a large amount of data being exfiltrated from its network.

The attack, the Rockville, Maryland-based company says, likely happened in mid-November, when a ransomware group accessed data on certain systems, deployed malware to prevent access to files, and then threatened to leak the exfiltrated files.

Despite that, Supernus Pharmaceuticals says it did not experience a significant impact on its business, as its operations were not seriously disrupted by the incident.

“The Company continues to operate without interruption and does not currently anticipate paying any ransom amounts to any criminal ransomware group,” the company says.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals also notes that it was able to recover the impacted files and that it took steps to improve the security of its network and files.

“To date, the Company has not paid any ransom and has been able to restore all of the information encrypted by the criminal ransomware group,” Supernus Pharmaceuticals underlined.

However, the company does believe that the miscreants will likely attempt to exploit the improperly obtained information.

On Thanksgiving, the Hive ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it breached Supernus Pharmaceuticals’ network on November 14, and that it managed to exfiltrate a total of 1,268,906 files, totaling 1.5 terabytes of data.

The hacking group announced on their leaks website on the Tor network that the stolen information will be posted online soon, pointing out that the company failed to mention the incident in their latest 8-K Form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On Friday, however, Supernus Pharmaceuticals filed another 8-K Form with the SEC, to mention the ransomware attack specifically.

Despite Supernus Pharmaceuticals’ claim that it has no plans to pay a ransom, the Hive ransomware operators claim that the company has been negotiating with them ever since the attack happened.