Cyberattacks are on the rise, striking more and more companies. We’ve had them here at home and we’ve seen them abroad. Hospitals have been affected and people have died as a result. And now for a large one, with its effects being felt on at least two continents — the world’s largest meat supplier has been hit with a rather nasty cyberattack.

The (cyberattack) steaks are high

The largest meat supplier in the world, JBS, confirmed the attack in a press release, saying that some of the servers at its North American and Australian facilities were compromised. This has led to the closure of the company’s facilities in cities in Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado and Alberta, Canada, as well as locations across Australia.

The company said that its “…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.”

JBS handles around 23% of all meat processing in the United States and about 20% of Australia’s meat production. This sort of attack could conceivably mess with the global food supply chain, which is probably the point. Ransomware expert Brett Callow, of Emsisoft, speaking to the Associated Press, explains, “They play a critical role in the food supply chain and threat actors likely believe this increases their chances of getting a speedy payout.”

Source: Bloomberg