Meatpacker JBS says all facilities operating after weekend cyberattack

All of meatpacker JBS SA’s global facilities are fully operational after a weekend. This cyberattack had disrupted much of its North American and Australian operations, the company reported. According to the statement from the company the Brazilian meatpacker’s arm in the United States and Pilgrim’s Pride, a U.S. chicken company mostly owned by JBS, lost less than one day’s worth of food production because of the hack. 

According to the company the losses will be recovered within a week. JBS has recovered faster than any other meat buyers. According to the White house this attack is from a Russian based group. This attack was followed after the last month’s attack on Colonial Pipeline, which crippled fuel delivery for several days in the U.S. Southeast. That is also tied to Russia. JBS voluntarily shut down all its systems to isolate the intrusion upon learning of the attack. This failed to infect encrypted backup servers.

Andre Nogueira, chief executive of JBS USA said that the criminals were never able to access their core systems, which greatly reduced potential impact. A U.S. Department of Agriculture official said that U.S. beef prices initially jumped as the attack tightened supplies. However, American consumers should not see a lasting impact on prices if the situation continues to resolve quickly. He also added that the market is moving towards normalization.

According to union officials, JBS has halted cattle slaughtering at its U.S. plants. According to USDA estimates, the number of cattle slaughtered by U.S. processors including JBS was up 27%. The USDA official said that they need to invest in a food system that is durable, distributed and better equipped to withstand 21st century challenges, including cybersecurity threats and other disruptions. Due to the pandemic in last year, the U.S. meat supply chain buckled because they had closed slaughterhouses. And this reduced the production and raising prices.