JBS S.A., the world’s largest meat processing company, has been struck by a ransomware attack, grinding operations in the U.S., Canada and Australia to a halt.

In a statement late Monday, JBS said that it had been targeted by a cyberattack on Sunday that affected some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian information technology systems. The company that it took immediate action in suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating its network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation.

JBS added that its backup servers were not affected and that it’s not aware of any evidence that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised.

Although the company didn’t disclose the form of cyberattack, the White House said today that the attack involved ransomware. “JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization, likely based in Russia,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals.”

Following in the footsteps of a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co. in May, the attack could have serious ramifications for beef supply in affected markets.

In Australia, thousands of workers employed by JBS have been stood down, abattoir kills canceled and trucks filled with cattle turned around. According to news.com.au, “there are now fears of a global meat shortage and significant price hikes if the shutdown drags on.”

In the U.S., the meat processing industry has already seen significant declines. CNBC reports that U.S. meatpackers slaughtered 94,000 cattle today, down 22% from a week earlier and 18% from a year earlier. Pork processors killed 390,000 pigs, down 20% from a week ago and 7% from a year ago.

The price of beef has already started to rise and is likely to continue to climb until JBS can restore all of its services. A rise in the price of beef will add to ongoing inflation concerns in the U.S. where fuel prices, in particular, have hit their highest level in seven years.

The company is confident, however, that the shutdowns will be short-lived, saying that it has now made “significant progress” to resolve the cyberattack and that the “vast majority” of its plants will be operational on Wednesday.

“The latest cyberattack targeting JBS once again reminds us how delicate the supply chain industry is today, especially when companies are extremely dependent on IT systems.” Joseph Carson, chief security scientist and advisory chief information security officer at It security firm Thycotic Centrify Inc., told SiliconANGLE. “The good news is that their backup systems appear to be unaffected by the attack which shows that they have followed some industry best practices and have an incident response plan but, these do not prevent cyberattacks.”

Christoph Hebeisen, director of security intelligence research at endpoint-to-cloud security company Lookout Inc., noted that “the impact of this incident has strong parallels to the Colonial Pipeline case. A critical industry is hit by an attack and has to shut down production leading to financial losses and potentially shortages affecting large populations.”

Forcing a production shutdown may or may not have been part of the intention of the attackers, Hebeisen added. “However, the impact of this compromise makes it clear that strong protections for IT infrastructure are becoming a business-critical imperative for all industries, including those whose core business does not have an immediately obvious data component,” he said.

Photo: Mizzou CAFNR