“Cyber Strike on Pune Biopharma Company: Hackers Ask $80,000 Ransom”

Pune | April 30, 2025
A Pune-based multinational biopharmaceutical firm has emerged as the newest casualty of a sophisticated ransomware attack, with hackers encrypting valuable proprietary information and asking for $80,000 (approx. ₹68 lakh) in exchange for the decryption key. The attack, which took place on Sunday afternoon, was officially reported through an FIR lodged on Monday evening at the Cyber Crime Police Station of Pimpri Chinchwad.

The attackers have further threatened to put the compromised information for sale on the dark web if their requirements are not fulfilled, police sources say. The stolen information purportedly comprises proprietary recipes, manufacturing procedures, and internal business data—much of which was not backed up by the organization.

“Early investigations indicate that the breach had started through a phishing attack on an endpoint device—most likely through a suspicious link,” added a police officer from the Pimpri Chinchwad Cyber Crime Police Station. “After gaining access to the system, the hackers used ransomware that was distributed from the firm’s main server to more than a dozen secondary servers, encrypting confidential files throughout the internal network.”

The firm has not yet paid the ransom at the time of this report. Police officials have begun a full-blown investigation and are using IP logs and digital forensics tools to track the source of the cyberattack.

“This incident highlights the essential importance of strong cyber security measures, frequent offline backups of data, and training employees to recognize and block phishing attempts,” the officer further added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Doiphode stressed the wider significance: “This case serves as a reminder that cyber threats are developing very fast, and companies—particularly those that handle sensitive intellectual property—need to spend in state-of-the-art cyber infrastructure and experienced cyber security professionals.”

Experts in cybersecurity have warned that ransomware attacks are fast becoming the norm in India’s emerging pharma and biotech industries, which have valuable IP and operational information. In most cases, the attackers insist on receiving payment in cryptocurrency, thus leaving investigators a cold trail to track.

All businesses have been urged by the police to promptly analyze their security measures, enforce multi-factor authentication, and ensure that firewalls and antivirus programs are updated in order to lower their exposure to such cyber threats.