Less than a month after the closure of the U.S. oil pipeline, the U.S. branch of global meat processing giant jbs sa suspended some factory operations due to cyberattacks.
According to a June 1 statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), usda has contacted several major U.S. meat processors to encourage them to increase capacity as much as possible and stress the importance of keeping supply flowing. According to the statement, usda will continue to work closely with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, JBS USA and others to alleviate any potential meat supply or price issues.
On the same day, JBS USA CEO Andre Nogueira said in a statement that the company's network system is back up and running, with the vast majority of beef, pork, poultry and prepared food plants restarting operations on June 2. The news partially eased concerns about rising food prices.
On Monday, local time, JBS USA confirmed the hacking incident in a statement. The company's five largest plants (in Utah, Texas, Wisconsin and Nebraska, respectively) suspended production due to cyberattacks, bringing nearly a quarter of U.S. meat production to a standstill. Previously, the five factories slaughtered about 22,500 cattle per day. If the factory continues to close, it may cause price fluctuations in the US meat market.
JBS USA is the second largest meat and poultry processor in the United States, producing nearly 1/4 of the total U.S. beef production and producing nearly 1/5 of the total U.S. pork production; its head office, JBS SA, is the world's largest meat supplier, headquartered in Brazil, with more than 150 factories in 15 countries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on June 1 that it has communicated with major U.S. meat processing companies to encourage them to increase production capacity as much as possible and ensure smooth supply.
Global meat processing giant JBS SA said in a Statement on May 31 that it has taken swift action to suspend the operation of related systems and set up a team of IT professionals and third-party experts to solve the cyberattack problem; there has been no data leakage at present, but it will take time to fully resume operations, and transactions with customers and suppliers may be delayed.
The day before, jbs sa was temporarily shut down due to a hack that led to the temporary closure of some of its operations in Australia, Canada and the United States.
The White House said the FBI was investigating the incident and that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was providing technical support to JBS USA. Some media quoted a US White House official as saying that the USDA and the US Department of Homeland Security are paying close attention to the supply of meat and poultry to ensure that cyber attacks do not lead to price manipulation.
The closure of the JBS USA plant has brought nearly one-fifth of U.S. meat production to a standstill. Some analysts pointed out that the impact of the shutdown on consumers will depend on the length of the shutdown, and the subsequent may cause meat shortages and price increases in local grocery stores.
The United Food and Business Workers International union said JBS USA's facility in Greeley, Colorado, had eliminated two slaughtering and processing shifts.
The impact of the shutdown on the meat supply is evident. U.S. meat processors slaughtered about 94,000 cattle on June 1, down 22 percent from a week earlier and 18 percent from a year earlier, and slaughtered 390,000 hogs, down 20 percent from a week earlier and 7 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's daily data track.
Matthew Wiegand, a risk management consultant and commodities broker at Futuresone, said the impact of the attack on consumers would depend on the decline in production; Brad Lyle, chief financial officer of consultancy Partners for Production Agriculture, noted that a plant closure caused by a cyberattack on JBS USA could lead to a tight supply. Further push up U.S. beef prices.
However, before the cyberattack, U.S. meat prices had been rising due to labor shortages in the U.S. meat industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, slowing supply chains, rising animal feed costs, exports, and surges in domestic demand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had predicted that beef prices would rise by 1%-2%, poultry prices by 1.5%, and pork prices by 2%-3% in 2021.
Brett Callow, an analyst at security firm Emsisoft, said companies like JBS SA were "ideal" targets for hacking because of their important role in the food supply chain, which increased the likelihood of quickly obtaining ransom. Stephen Boyer, bitsight's chief technology officer, noted that 40 percent of food production companies face a higher risk of cyberattacks due to imperfect patching operations.
"This incident highlights the fragility of the security of the U.S. food supply chain and the importance of multi-channel meat processing capabilities." Senator John Thune of South Dakota said. This isn't the first ransomware attack against food companies. In November 2020, Milan-based Campari Group said the ransomware attack it suffered caused a brief technical outage for the company and damaged some business and personal data. In March 2021, Molson Coors also announced that a cyberattack would affect its production and transportation.
Another analysis points out that the consequences of the cyberattack could be more severe than the may-day oil pipeline shutdown, because, unlike natural gas, food spoils and many systems that have suffered ransomware attacks take weeks to fully resume operations.
Puandar Das, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Sotero, suggests that private companies need to pay more attention to cybersecurity and invest in related technologies and projects over the long term, which could ultimately affect business and revenue.
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