JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, said on Tuesday night
it had made "significant progress in resolving the cyberattack." The
"vast majority" of the company's beef, pork, poultry, and prepared
foods plants will be operational on Wednesday, according to a statement, easing
concerns over rising food prices.
The cyberattack followed one last month by a group with ties
to Russia on Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States,
which crippled fuel delivery for several days in the US Southeast.
JBS halted cattle slaughter at all its US plants on Tuesday,
according to union officials. On Monday, the attack caused Australian
operations to shut down.
"Our systems are coming back online and we are not
sparing any resources to fight this threat," said Andre Nogueira, chief
executive of JBS USA.
With North American operations headquartered in Greeley,
Colorado, JBS controls about 20 percent of the slaughtering capacity for US
cattle and hogs.
Cyberattack Hits JBS Meat Works in Australia, North America
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the United
States contacted Russia's government and that the FBI was investigating.
"The White House is engaging directly with the Russian
government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do
not harbor ransomware criminals," Jean-Pierre said.
JBS sells beef and pork under the Swift brand, with
retailers like Costco Wholesale carrying its pork loins and tenderloins. JBS
also owns most of chicken processor Pilgrim's Pride, which sells organic
chicken under the Just Bare brand.
Ongoing shutdowns of JBS plants would threaten to raise meat
prices further for American consumers during summer grilling season and to
disrupt meat exports at a time of strong demand from China.
"The supply chains, logistics and transportation that
keep our society moving are especially vulnerable to ransomware, where attacks
on choke points can have outsized effects and encourage hasty payments,"
said threat researcher John Hultquist with security company FireEye.
The disruption quickly had an impact on Tuesday, industry
analysts said. US meatpackers slaughtered 22 percent fewer cattle than a week
earlier and 18% than a year earlier, according to estimates from the US
Department of Agriculture. Pork processing was also down.
Prices for choice and select cuts of US beef shipped to
wholesale buyers in large boxes each jumped more than 1 percent, the USDA said.
The USDA contacted several major meat processors to
encourage them to keep supplies moving and slaughter additional livestock when
possible, according to a statement. The agency also urged meatpackers to make
their IT and supply-chain infrastructure more durable.
Federal agencies including the USDA and Department of
Homeland Security are closely monitoring meat and poultry supplies, a White
House official said. The agencies are also working with agricultural processors
to ensure no price manipulation occurs as a result of the cyberattack, the
official said.
Affected systems suspended
JBS said it suspended all affected systems, notified
authorities and that backup servers were not affected. A representative in Sao
Paulo said there was no impact on Brazilian operations.
The company said Sunday's cyberattack affected its North
American and Australian IT systems and "resolution of the incident will
take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and
suppliers."
US beef and pork prices are already rising as China
increases imports, animal feed costs rise and slaughterhouses face a dearth of
workers. Any further impact on consumers will depend on how long JBS plants
remain closed, analysts said.
JBS Beef in Cactus, Texas, said on Facebook that there would
be no production for fabrication, slaughtering or rendering on one shift on
Wednesday. Another shift will have regular start times for employees.
An early shift was also canceled on Wednesday at JBS' beef
plant in Greeley after the cyberattack, but a later shift was scheduled to
resume normally, representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union Local 7 said in an email.
A pork plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, will have no "harvest
production" on its first or second shifts on Wednesday, according to a
Facebook post that said the company was "continuing to work through our IT
issues." Some other aspects of the plant are operating, according to the
post.
JBS Canada said in a Facebook post that it operated a shift
at its beef plant in Brooks, Alberta, on Tuesday, after canceling shifts
earlier in the day and on Monday.
The United States Cattlemen's Association, a beef industry
group, said on Twitter that it had reports of JBS redirecting livestock haulers
who arrived at plants with animals ready for slaughter.
Last year, cattle and hogs backed up on US farms and some
animals were euthanised when meat plants were shut during coronavirus outbreaks
among workers.
Over the past few years, ransomware has evolved into a
pressing national security issue. A number of gangs, many of them Russian
speakers, develop the software that encrypts files and then demand payment in
cryptocurrency for keys that allow the owners to decipher and use them again.
© Reuters