JBS reopening most beef plants after weekend cyberattack

JBS will have most of its plants operational after a weekend cyberattack by a notorious Russia-linked hacking group impacted its global operations.

The Sao Paulo-based JBS owns facilities in 20 countries.

The cyberattack forced shutdowns at JBS’s US beef plants, which provide almost a quarter of American supplies, its Australian slaughter operations, and its Canadian beef plant.

All other JBS meatpacking facilities in the US experienced some level of disruption, according to JBS USA Chief Executive Officer Andre Nogueira.

The company's Canadian beef facility has resumed production while those in Cactus, Texas, and Grand Island, Nebraska, were planning to resume.

JBS, the world’s biggest beef processor, has yet to report how many of its plants globally were affected.

The culprit was said to be the group that goes by the name REvil or Sodinokibi.

Just three weeks earlier, Colonial Pipeline Co., operator of the biggest US gasoline pipeline, was targeted in a ransomware attack attributed to Darkside, another group linked to Russia.

The industry is so concentrated that idling the JBS plants prevented the US government from releasing some key meat-pricing data that agricultural markets rely on daily.

The sector is dominated by JBS, Tyson Foods Inc., and Cargill Inc., which control around two-thirds of US beef production.

US Senator John Thune noted the JBS cyberattack highlights the vulnerabilities of the US food supply chain security and underscores the need to diversify the nation’s meat processing capacity.

So far, it’s unclear what the impact on meat prices will be from this latest attack.