US food giant pays ransom to hackers

Meatpacking giant JBS Foods paid an $11 million ransom to hackers following last month’s cyberattack.

JBS’ chief executive, Andre Nogueira said he made the payment to protect the company from any further attacks.

“This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally.”

The cyberattack forced JBS to close some plants and left experts concerned about the global food distribution network.

The FBI said Russian organisations, REvil and Sodinokibi were behind the attack. Officials said they “are working diligently to bring the threat actors to justice”.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, said the US Government are working with their Russian counterparts.

“The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbour ransomware criminals,” she said.

At the time of the ransom payment to the hackers, JBS’ facilities were operational. But Mr Nogueira said the company wants to mitigate other issues and ensure no data leaks.

“However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers.”

Investigations are still ongoing into the attack. However, the FBI described REvil and Sodinokibi as one of the most specialised and sophisticated cybercriminal groups in the world.

JBS Foods spends over $200 million on IT systems, including 850 IT professionals globally. It follows the operators of the Colonial Pipeline paying a $4.4 million ransom to hackers last month to regain control of their technical operations.