The world's largest meat processor, JBS Foods, has had its production network severely disrupted following a cyber attack.
The firm said over the weekend that some of the servers supporting its US and Australian IT systems were compromised by unidentified hackers, according to Beef Central. The firm suspended all affected systems, and activated its global network of experts and IT professionals to resolve the situation.
JBS' backup servers weren't affected, and the company isn't aware of any evidence that customer, supplier, or employee data was seized or abused as part of the cyber attack. Operations, however, were immediately disrupted, with JBS shutting production down in Australia for at least 24 hours. The full extent of the attack is still being measured.
"The technology they use goes to the heart of the quality assurance of the beef they are processing," said Australia's agriculture minister, David Littleproud, to ABC. "We need to make sure we can get that up and going to give confidence not just to consumers in Australia, but also to our export markets.
"They are obviously working with law enforcement agencies here in Australia and we're working in partnership with other countries to get to the bottom of this. Since it is a global attack it's important not to speculate that it's emanated from any particular place, just yet."
RELATED RESOURCE
Don’t just educate: Create cyber-safe behaviour
Designing effective security awareness and training programmes
The company said it would strive to restore operations as soon as possible, but doing so would be impossible without full access to its IT and internal systems.
The nature of the attack, or the intentions of the attackers, are not known at this time, although the attack style is consistent with several other high-profile cyber attacks against large businesses in recent months, including ransomware attacks.
Bose, for example, confirmed last week that it had suffered an attack in early March, with employee data being exposed in the process. Various health services across the world, too, have been hit by ransomware infections, including the Irish and New Zealand services.
One of the most infamous recent incidents was the Colonial Pipeline attack, in which hackers took down the energy supply for vast swathes of the US East Coast. The cyber security firm Elliptic claimed, in the aftermath of the attack, that operators paid the attackers a ransom of more than $5 million to restore operations.
Research published last month found that the manufacturing, health care, and finance industries saw a 300%, 200%, and 53% increase in worldwide attacks respectively over the last year.
-
Using DeepSeek at work is like ‘printing out and handing over your confidential information’News Thinking of using DeepSeek at work? Think again. Cybersecurity experts have warned you're putting your enterprise at huge risk.
-
Can cyber group takedowns last?ITPro Podcast Threat groups can recover from website takeovers or rebrand for new activity – but each successful sting provides researchers with valuable data
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
-
Google cyber researchers were tracking the ShinyHunters group’s Salesforce attacks – then realized they’d also fallen victimNews In an update to an investigation on the ShinyHunters group, Google revealed it had also been affected
-
Nearly one-third of ransomware victims are hit multiple times, even after paying hackersNews Many ransomware victims are being hit more than once, largely thanks to fragmented security tactics
-
75% of UK business leaders are willing to risk criminal penalties to pay ransomsNews A ransom payment ban is a great idea - until you're the one being targeted...
-
The Scattered Spider ransomware group is infiltrating Slack and Microsoft Teams to target vulnerable employeesNews The group is using new ransomware variants and new social engineering techniques - including sneaking into corporate teleconferences
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crimeNews A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaos
News Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year
