[ad_1]
The company’s chief executive said JBS USA Holdings Inc paid $11 million in ransom to cybercriminals who last week temporarily shut down factories that process nearly a fifth of the country’s meat supply.
Andre Nogueira, CEO of Brazilian meat company JBS SA, US division, said the ransom payment, in bitcoin, was made to protect JBS meat plants from further disruption and reduce the potential impact on restaurants, grocery stores and farmers who depend on JBS.
“Paying criminals was very painful, but we did the right thing for our clients,” Mr. Nogueira said Wednesday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He added that the payment was made after the majority of JBS stations were operational again.
JBS is the world’s largest meat company by sales and processing of beef, poultry and pork from Australia to South America and Europe. In the United States, the company is the largest manufacturer of beef and the largest supplier of chicken and pork. Its subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., which was also affected by the attack, is the second largest poultry manufacturer in the United States, after Tyson Foods Inc.
The attack on JBS was part of a wave of ransomware incursions, with companies facing demands for multi-million dollar payments to take back control of their operating systems. A pipeline operator that brings gasoline to parts of the East Coast in May paid about $4.4 million to regain control of its operations and restore service. The attacks show how hackers have shifted from targeting data-rich businesses such as retailers, banks and insurance companies to essential service providers such as hospitals, transportation operators and food companies.
.
[ad_2]
Picture Credit!