JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company, fell victim to a ransomware attack. Unfortunately, it had to pay $11 million to secure its data.
The meat giant says that it had to pay the ransom since it was necessary to keep its customers safe after hackers were able to knock out several of their plants. The CEO says that the attack wiped out roughly 20% of their systems.
The company decided to pay the ransom rather than attempt to retrieve its data due to the complexity of the attack and the danger of having the information leaked posed to both customers and employees. The profits generated from their operational plants made it easier to pay than to take the risk.
“This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally,” said the Chief Executive Andre Nogueira.”
The attack caused the company to shut down cattle slaughtering facilities in the US for an entire day. This threatens to exacerbate already rising food prices and deal a blow to the entire U.S. economy.
Not long after the attack, the White House released a statement explaining that President Joe Biden is already directing his administration toward understanding how this will affect the nation’s meat supply.
The same statement assured citizens that the FBI is already investigating the attack, and that it most likely has ties to Russia. In lieu of the recent spikes in cyberattacks from Russia and overarching geopolitical issues, Joe Biden is flying overseas to meet Vladmir Putin.
“The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbour ransomware criminals,”
“If the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack didn’t impact enough consumers to spur response by the international community, the JBS meat supplier incident likely will,” says Meg King, director of science and technology at the Wilson Center.