JBS Foods said it is regaining its footing after a weekend ransomware attack disrupted its processing operations and threatened the global meat supply.
The company expects the “vast majority” of its beef, pork, poultry and prepared foods plants to be operational Wednesday after IT pros made progress in rectifying the cyber intrusion.
“Our systems are coming back online, and we are not sparing any resources to fight this threat. We have cybersecurity plans in place to address these types of issues, and we are successfully executing those plans,” said Andre Nogueira, the CEO of JBS USA.
The company has a massive footprint in North America and Australia. Shutting down its operations would threaten up to a quarter of beef capacity in the U.S.
The White House offered assistance to JBS through the Department of Agriculture and blamed the attack on a criminal organization likely based in Russia — weeks after a similar attack and assignment of blame related to a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline.
“I want to personally thank the White House, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Australian and Canadian governments for their assistance over the last two days,” Mr. Nogueira said.
JBS also said it does not believe any customer or supplier data was compromised in the attack.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden will raise the ransomware attacks issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet in Geneva on June 16.
She said the administration believes Mr. Putin’s government has a “role to play” in stopping and preventing cyberattacks that originate in his country.
“Hence, it will be a topic of discussion when they meet in two weeks,” Ms. Psaki said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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