Just days after a crippling cyber hack on global meat producer JBS, President Joe Biden is preparing to discuss the matter directly with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Biden is reviewing the threat posed by ransomware attacks and will discuss the issue of harboring such hackers with Putin this month.
The leaders will meet in Geneva on June 16, amid sharp disagreements over election interference and human rights.
This week, the hack of Brazilian meatpacker JBS in the United States, became the third such ransomware hack in the country since January.
JBS told the White House this week it originated from a criminal organization likely based in Russia.
The FBI is now investigating.
President Biden was asked about the hack at the end of his news conference.
What threat will this incident have on food security with operations being impacted?
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.
Tenable’s Vice President of Operational Technology Security, Marty Edwards, says companies part of the food supply chain are ‘fairly resilient”
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.
