Food & Beverage

World's biggest meatpacker reopening after ransomware attack

Photo: iStock.

June 2, 2021

Slightly more than a day after the world's biggest meatpacker, JBS, closed U.S. and Australian operations due to a cyberattack, operations are slowly coming back on line, according to the New York Times.

JBS's U.S. and Australian-based operations both use the same computer system and both were affected by the ransomware attack on the company.

Australia's agriculture minister said that several big U.S. plants were taken down along with major disruptions to the processing of beef, lamb and pork in Australia

JBS Foods said it made "significant progress" in resolving the Tuesday attack and the company's U.S. CEO Andre Nogueira said Tuesday night that most U.S. plants are expected to reopen today, though analysts still say that relatively brief shutdown could affect beef prices as the company handles about 20% of cattle and hog slaughtering in the U.S.