Agriculture & Food

After successfully extorting Colonial, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the United States, hackers attacked JBS, the world's largest meat supplier. On May 31, local time, JBS stated to the outside world that the company's server was attacked by hackers in an organized manner. The affected systems included the US branch and the Australian branch, and some factories suspended operations.

As the world's largest supplier of animal protein, JBS employs more than 240,000 people and exports its products to more than 150 countries and regions. This is unavoidable. It is worrying. Once production is suspended for a long time, it may impact the global meat supply chain again. .

Just three weeks ago, hackers attacked Colonial, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the United States, and forced the United States into a national emergency. In the end, Colonial paid the hackers 75 bitcoins.

According to Australian speculation, the hacker attacked the JBS server with a high probability of extorting property.

The global meat giant was targeted by hackers

Haiwai.com reported on June 1 that JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, was attacked by hackers on Sunday. On May 31, local time, JBS informed the outside world via e-mail that the company’s servers had been attacked by hackers. , The affected systems include the US branch and the Australian branch, and some factories have suspended operations.

JBS said that this hacking incident may delay some of the company's transactions with customers and suppliers. As to whether the operations of its meat processing plant were affected by the hacker attack, JBS did not provide any explanation.

JBS SA, the world's largest meat processing company, became the target of a cyber attack last Sunday, causing the global food supply chain that has been hit by the epidemic to face new threats.

The cyber attack caused JBS to suspend two sets of shifts and processing operations at one of its largest meat processing plants in Canada. The Australian Financial Review reported earlier that JBS's cattle and sheep slaughter in Australia has been suspended. There have been no reports of the suspension of operations at the JBS US plant.

According to reports, the Australian government has also learned of this incident and is currently working with JBS to restore online production facilities across the country. Australian Minister of Agriculture David Littleproud said that he is cooperating with Australian law enforcement agencies and with other countries/regions because this is a global attack.

Currently, there is no information on the nature of the cyber attack, but based on the attacker's choice of attacking the company's systems over the weekend, it is likely that ransomware will be involved.

Australia is unable to confirm this hypothesis for the time being, but it warns that this will have serious economic impact on workers in JBS offline production facilities, distribution centers and transportation hubs, depending on how long this situation lasts and JBS How long is offline.

The Queensland Secretary of the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union, Matt Journeaux, said that the Australian cyber attack alone would affect thousands of JBS workers and they would not be able to return to work.

Annual revenue exceeds 300 billion! JBS ceases production or impacts global meat supply chain

The hacker attack occurred in the third week after the largest oil and gas pipeline operator in the United States was attacked by hackers, which marked that the hackers included the commodity business in their attack vision.

At present, the meat industry is gradually recovering from the impact of the new crown epidemic. The large-scale outbreak in 2020 has caused all the top three meat processing giants in the United States to shut down, and meat supply was temporarily interrupted. The hacking attack is tantamount to worsening the situation for the meat industry.

Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, JBS is Brazil’s largest multinational food processing group and the world’s largest meat processing company. Its annual revenue exceeds US$50 billion (approximately RMB 318.5 billion) and ranks 191st among the Fortune Global 500. It has meat processing plants in more than 20 countries around the world and employs more than 240,000 people worldwide. Its business in Australia and New Zealand accounts for 4% of the company’s revenue, and its Canadian business accounts for 3%. Its business in the United States is very important. The revenue accounted for more than 50%.

As the world’s largest supplier of animal protein, JBS slaughters approximately 100,000 cows, 14 million chickens, 140,000 pigs, and nearly 30,000 sheep every day worldwide. It is the world’s largest beef company, the largest chicken company, The second largest pork company and the fourth largest mutton company export products to more than 150 countries and regions.

Since 2016, JBS has officially deployed its business in China. Today, the Chinese market accounts for about 20% of the total exports to Asia. China has become one of JBS's important global markets.

At present, the global meat supply chain is an interlocking chain. From farm breeding, to slaughtering and processing, to procurement, logistics and transportation, to the final sales, there is a very systematic and mature division of labor, and any link appears. Problems will affect the normal supply of global meat.

Take the U.S. epidemic in 2020 as an example. Many meat processing plants in the U.S. Smithfield, Tyson, and JBS U.S. branch were forced to suspend production indefinitely due to the outbreak, which directly caused major U.S. farms to be unable to sell livestock and missed a large number of them. Live pigs in the slaughter stage were euthanized, and American farmers had no choice but to culling livestock and poultry. At the same time, the major supermarkets have fallen into an embarrassing situation where there is no meat to sell, which once led to a sharp rise in the price of meat in the United States, and even threatened the US food supply chain.

The hacker attack once again forced JBS to suspend production in some factories in the United States and Australia, which is unavoidable. Once production is suspended for a long time and on a large scale, it may have another impact on the newly restored US meat supply chain.

At present, the origins of the hackers who attacked JBS and the specific methods of attacking JBS are still unclear, but according to Australian speculation, the attackers chose to attack the company's systems on weekends, and there is a high probability that ransomware is also involved.