The world’s largest meat processor, the Brazilian company JBS, has been attacked by hackers. According to news agency Bloomberg As a result, work in branches in several countries has come to a halt and tens of thousands of employees have been sent home.
Factories in North America, Australia and Canada were particularly affected.
JBS also has branches in Europe, but it is not clear whether these have also been shut down by the hackers. JBS does not have a slaughterhouse in the Netherlands, but the Brazilian company announced last month that it had acquired the Dutch meat substitute producer Vivera.
Thousands of massacres a day
The cyber attack took place last Sunday and targeted American computer servers, according to JBS. The company says that no sensitive information has been stolen so far and that it is now working hard to get all systems running again. It’s not clear how extensive the damage is, but the attack has caused delivery problems anyway.
The JBS slaughterhouse in Australia is one of the largest Brazilian establishments. From there, beef, lamb and pork are exported to more than fifty countries. The factory in Canada is also a big one: about 4,200 cattle are slaughtered there every day.
The hacking attack at JBS comes not long after a major cyber attack against the American oil pipeline company Colonial Pipeline. The hack three weeks ago forced a major oil pipeline in the US to be temporarily shut down, causing gas shortages at gas stations and soaring fuel prices.
According to Bloomberg news agency, Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers about four million euros to regain access to the systems. It is not clear whether hackers have also demanded money from JBS.
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