JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, has been hit by a cyber-attack that has disrupted processing operations in the US and Australia.
The company said in a statement that on Sunday, 30 May, it had “determined it was the target of an organised attack affecting some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems”.
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“The company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company’s global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation.
“The company’s backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an Incident Response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible.”
It added: “The company is not aware of any evidence at this time that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of the situation.”
Closures
Meat processors are reliant on IT systems for the tracing and sorting of animals, as well as record keeping.
As a result of the attack, abattoirs in both the US and Australia were forced to close, with reports that thousands of employees had been stood down when they arrived for work on Monday morning.
JBS did not give a definitive answer as to when it would resume processing, saying: “Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers.”
