Global meat processor has been hit by cyber attack and shuts down slaughterhouses

Meat processing company JBS has been hit by a cyber attack that has shut down facilities in Australia and North America. JBS says it is currently unaware of “any evidence that data from customers, suppliers or employees has been stolen or misused.”

The US branch of Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company, said in a statement that it was hit by an “ organized cyber attack ” on Sunday. Some US servers that support the North American and Australian IT systems have been affected. Operation of all affected systems has been suspended. According to the company, the backup servers have not been affected.

JBS USA says that no evidence has yet been found that data has been looted, although the company acknowledges that it may take some time to resolve the incident. This means that the possibility remains that evidence will eventually emerge. The company does not provide further information about the attack, any exploited vulnerabilities or the course of action used.

Farmonline, among others, reports that tens of thousands of slaughterhouse workers in Australia have been sent home after several JBS factories in the country have been shut down. The numbers would be even greater in the United States. JBS is the largest meat processor in Australia and has, among other things, a slaughterhouse in that country from which meat is exported to all kinds of other countries.

According to Beefcentral, at least in Australia, the impact is significant, as meat processors are highly dependent on computer systems and internet connectivity, including for archiving, applying regulatory documents and counting. There would now be thousands of carcasses of slaughtered cows waiting to be handled and processed in Australia. According to Beefcentral, boning will take place on Wednesday, with manual counting and documents applied.