NewsNational News

Actions

Meat producer suffers cyberattack of U.S., Australia servers; most production reportedly stopped

Australia JBS Cyberattack
Posted at 9:05 AM, Jun 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-01 19:41:14-04

GREELEY, Colo. — JBS USA, one of the world's largest meat producers, announced they were the victim of a cyberattack over the holiday weekend.

In a press release, the company said the attack affected "some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems," and that they had suspended "all affected systems." They did not provide more details at this time.

Because of the attack, production has stopped at the company's Australian facilities, leaving thousands of employees with no work for a second day Tuesday.

The country's agriculture minister said it may take days for production to resume at the facilities there.

JBS is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado. They have not responded to inquiries about any production changes at their Colorado or North American facilities because of the cyberattack.

According to Bloomberg, the company stopped processing at its five biggest U.S. beef plants on Tuesday, including in Utah, Texas, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

Citing a union source, Bloomberg also reported later Tuesday that all of JBS USA's beef plants had been shut down.

The company says their backup servers were not affected and they are working to restore their systems as soon as possible.

They acknowledge the process may take time, "which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers."