The world’s largest meat processor JBS says they were asked to pay ransom in an alleged Russian cyber attack.

The hack forced JBS to close some plants. Experts worry this may put global food distribution at risk and wiping out nearly a fifth of America’s meat production.

JBS says it received the demand from “a criminal organisation likely based in Russia”.

The company added that the attack also affected its operations in Australia and North America. However, JBS said the attack didn’t impact its backup servers.

The attack on JBS forced the shutdown of some of the world’s largest slaughterhouses. And there are signs that closures are spreading.

The White House statement on JBS comes as yet another major US sector finds its operations under duress. This comes less than a month after a major cyber attack temporarily shut down the Colonial Pipeline network.

The FBI is now investigating the incident.

Majority of Plants Will Be Operational Wednesday

JBS says it’s made “significant progress” to resolve the cyber attack.

The owner of JBS USA and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. said some of the company’s pork, poultry and prepared foods plants were operational. Furthermore, the company’s beef facility in Canada has resumed production.

“We have cyber-security plans in place to address these types of issues and we are successfully executing those plans.”

How does this impact the global food supply chain?

The cyber attack on JBS comes as the latest threat to global food supply chains.

The attack focused on the Brazilian company’s computer networks, impacting the five biggest beef plants in the US, all up handling 22 thousand 500 cattle a day.

It shut JBS’ Australian and North American computer networks and sidelined two shifts. This further halted processing at one of Canada’s largest meatpacking plants, but that beef facility has since resumed production.

Australian Operations were also down, whereas operations in Mexico and the U.K. were not affected.

Australia’s federal government took action to minimise impact on supply chain, Federal Agriculture Minister David said the technology and “systems they [JBS] use, go to the heart of the quality assurance of the beef that they process.”

“So we need to make sure that we can get that up and going to give confidence, not just to consumers here in Australia, but also to our export markets,” he said on Tuesday.

Despite the impact, the company was able to ship product from nearly all of its facilities to its customers

Concerns after cyber attack on U.S pipeline impacted gas supply

JBS has 47 facilities across Australia and operates the largest network of production facilities and feedlots in the country.

Hackers have the commodities complex in their crosshairs, with the JBS attack coming just three weeks after Darkside targeted the biggest US gasoline pipeline.

The Colonial Pipeline experienced a cyberattack that shut down its nationwide network on 7 May. As such, millions of barrels of petrol, diesel and jet fuel stopped flowing.

The hackers are from Russia’s “DarkSide”, who allegedly steal from larger corporations and give the ransom funds to charity.

After the cyberattack, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to strengthen cybersecurity defences across the US.