JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat processor, has revealed it paid an $US11 million (14.2 million) ransom in Bitcoin to the hackers behind an attack that forced the shutdown last week of all the company’s U.S. beef plants and disrupted operations at meatworks across Australia.

The company said in a statement that the decision to pay the ransom was made to protect its data and hedge against risk for its customers. The company said most of its facilities were back up and running when the payment was made.