By Ry Crozier on Jun 1, 2021 7:49AM Image credit: JBS Foods Australia
Impacts IT systems in several locations.
Meat processor JBS has warned it could take the company some time to recover from an “organised cyber security attack” that has impacted servers in its Australian and North American operations.
Beefcentral, which quoted JBS Australia CEO Brent Eastwood saying that the full impact of the attack was still being assessed.
Reuters reported that JBS’s Primo Smallgoods business in Queensland has also been impacted by IT system outages as a result of the incident.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, JBS USA confirmed it had been targeted and that “some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems” were offline.
White House Responds, US Meat Supply Under Strain After Cyberattack Hits JBS Foods
The White House Tuesday said that the cyberattack affecting meatpacking firm JBS Foods’ systems appeared to originate in Russia and said the administration is offering assistance.
“JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization, likely based in Russia,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that the Biden administration is “engaging directly” with Moscow and has sent a “message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals.”
On Monday, JBS confirmed in a release that it was hit with a cybersecurity attack. The firm’s servers in Australia and North America were impacted during the incident.
Operations at several owned by JBS, which processes one-fifth of the country’s beef, were affected, according to union representatives and Facebook posts meant for employees.