Cyber attack shuts down JBS meat processing across the globe
The world’s largest red meat processor has been shut down — including in Victoria, Queensland, NSW and Tasmania — with hackers being blamed.
The biggest meat processing company in the world has been hit by a computer hack that has halted livestock processing at its beef and lamb plants, worldwide.
The Weekly Times understands the cyber attack on JBS’s information technology systems has halted processing at plants throughout the country, including at its Brooklyn operation in Melbourne.
The company is understood to have cancelled its entire beef and lamb processing on Monday in other states — Queensland, NSW and Tasmania — as well, with overseas processing operations also expected to be hit, including plants in South and North America.
Motives for a hack are unclear.
JBS released a statement early Tuesday morning which said the “organised cybersecurity attack” on Sunday had affected some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems.
“The company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company’s global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation,” the statement said.
“The company’s backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an Incident Response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible.
“The company is not aware of any evidence at this time that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of the situation.
“Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers.”
Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the global cyber attack on JBS, which is a Brazilian company with Australian headquarters in Brisbane, was “very concerning” and a significant disruption to the international red meat supply chain.
He said JBS was “obviously taking the appropriate steps and working with the Federal Government’’ and the Australian Federal Police to get their operations back up and running.
“We’re working now with international partners … trying to trace and then rectify and obviously prosecute where possible, who has perpetrated this attack.” Mr Littleproud said.
He said it was too early to speculate where the attack came from or the impact on the local livestock and processing industry.
“Obviously, quality assurance is what JBS and all our processing facilities work on,” he said.
“And we rely on technology to provide that confidence and traceability of the product.
“So that’s why it’s important we take our time to get it right, to do it as quickly as we can.”
Mr Littleproud said every day the company was out of action was costing it “a lot of money”.
“They’ve got a lot of employees and we’re trying to get them up and running as quickly as we can,” he said.
“And you’ve got to understand, it also impacts not just JBS, but the supply chains that supply them as well. The truck drivers all the way through.”
No JBS buyers were present at Bendigo lamb market in Victoria on Monday, however it is not known if this was a direct result of the IT outage.
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