(Worthington, MN) – The JBS plant in Worthington had to close Tuesday following a cyber-attack on the world’s largest meat supplier. Reports say hackers out of Russia targeted JBS servers in North America and Australia in a ransomware attack, disrupting operations for the company. In Worthington, some shifts have also been canceled today.
Officials say they will continue to work to resolve the incident as transactions suffer some delays. “Our systems are coming back online and we are not sparing any resources to fight this threat,” Andre Nogueira, CEO of JBS USA, said in a statement.
JBS is the second-largest producer of beef, pork and chicken in the U.S. If it were to shut down for even one day, the U.S. would lose almost a quarter of its beef-processing capacity, or the equivalent of 20,000 beef cows, according to Trey Malone, an assistant professor of agriculture at Michigan State University.
JBS, which has not stated publicly that the attack was ransomware, said the cyber-attack affected servers supporting its operations in North America and Australia. Backup servers weren’t affected and it said it was not aware of any customer, supplier, or employee data being compromised.
