After successfully blackmailing Colonial, the largest US fuel pipeline operator, hackers attacked JBS, the world's largest meat supplier. On May 31, local time, JBS told the outside world that the company's servers have been systematically attacked by hackers, the affected systems including the United States and Australia, some of the plant operations were suspended.
As the world's largest supplier of animal protein, JBS employs more than 240,000 people, and its products are exported to more than 150 countries and regions. It is an unavoidable concern that if large-scale production stoppings are prolonged, the global meat supply chain may be impacted again.
Just three weeks ago, hackers attacked Colonial, the nation's largest fuel pipeline operator, briefly forcing a state of emergency in the United States. Colonial eventually paid the hackers 75 bitcoins.
According to Australian speculation, the hacker attack JBS server, large probability is also to extort money.
Global meat giant, targeted by hackers
Overseas network news on June 1, the world's largest meat supplier JBS suffered the hacker's attack on Sunday, local time on May 31, JBS company via E-mail to the outside world, said the company server was attacked by hackers organized, the affected system including the USA and Australia division, some factories to suspend operations.
JBS said the hack could delay some of its deals with customers and suppliers. JBS did not provide information on whether operations at its meat-processing plants had been affected by the attack.
JBS SA, the world's largest meat-processing company, was the target of a cyber attack on Sunday, posing a new threat to the global food supply chain already reeling from the outbreak.
The cyber attack led JBS to halt two shifts and processing operations at one of its largest meat processors in Canada. The Australian Financial Review reported earlier that JBS had suspended the slaughter of cattle and sheep in Australia. There were no immediate reports of disruptions to operations at JBS's U.S. plants.
The Australian government has also reportedly been informed of the incident and is working with JBS to restore online production facilities across the country. Australian Agriculture Minister David Littlebrow said he was working with law enforcement agencies in Australia, as well as other countries, because this was a global attack.
Currently, there is no information about the nature of the cyber attack, but based on the choice of attackers to attack the company's systems over the weekend, it is likely that ransomware was involved.
Australia was unable to confirm this hypothesis at the moment, but warned that the economic impact for workers at JBS's offline production facilities, distribution centres and transport hubs would depend on how long the situation lasted and how long JBS was offline.
Matt Journeaux, Queensland state secretary of the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union, said the attack in Australia alone would affect thousands of JBS workers who would not be able to return to work.
Annual revenue over 300 billion! JBS may halt production and hit the global meat supply chain
The hack, which comes three weeks after the biggest US oil and gas pipeline operator was hacked, marks the commodities business being brought into the hackers' sights.
At present, the meat industry is recovering from the impact of the new coronavirus, a massive outbreak in 2020 that shut down all three major meat processing companies in the United States and temporarily disrupted meat supply. The hack, to the meat industry, is no different from the worse.
JBS headquarters is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is one of the largest multinational food processing group, Brazil is the world's largest meat processing enterprises, the annual revenue of more than $50 billion (RMB 318.5 billion), ranked 191th in the fortune global 500, its more than 20 countries around the world have meat processing factories, the world as many as more than 240000 employees, Australia and New Zealand account for 4 per cent of the company's revenues, Canada for 3 per cent and its crucial US business, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of revenues each year.
As the world's largest supplier of animal protein, JBS slaughters about 100,000 cattle, 14 million chickens, 140,000 pigs and nearly 30,000 sheep every day worldwide. It is the world's largest beef company, chicken company, second largest pork company and fourth largest mutton company, and its products are exported to more than 150 countries and regions.
Since 2016, JBS has officially set up its business in China. Now, in the total export to Asia, China's market share has reached about 20%. China has become one of the most important markets of JBS in the world.
At present, the global meat supply chain is an interlinked chain. There is a very systematic and mature division of labor from farm feeding, to slaughter and processing, to procurement, logistics and transportation, and to the final terminal sales. Any problem in any link will affect the normal supply of meat around the world.
In the case of the US epidemic in 2020, Smithfield, Tyson, JBS and other meat processing plants were forced to suspend production indefinitely due to the outbreak, which directly led to the inability of major US farms to sell livestock, and the euthanasia of a large number of pigs that missed the expiration date. American farmers had no choice but to kill livestock and poultry. At the same time, supermarkets were left with no meat to sell, which led to a sharp rise in meat prices in the United States and even threatened the food supply chain in the United States.
The hacker attack again forced JBS to suspend production at some factories in the United States and Australia, raising concerns that a long and large-scale shutdown might have another impact on the newly recovered American meat supply chain.
Hackers are rampant! At one point, the United States was forced into a state of emergency
Referring to the last hacker extortion event, perhaps we can foresee the impact of JBS hacker attack and the final outcome.
On May 7, the US time, the largest US fuel pipeline operator Colonial was forced to shut down the entire pipeline system due to the attack of hackers, which directly led to the US gasoline futures price soaring by 4%, once hitting a new high in nearly 3 years. On May 11, the price of a gallon of gasoline rose to $2.985, the highest level in nearly six years, sparking panic and a rush to pump that left gas stations in many parts of the United States running out of fuel.
The attack even alerted President Joe Biden, who was on vacation. On May 9, local time, the United States declared a national emergency.
According to the investigation by the cyber security agency, the group of hackers known as the Dark Side carried out the attack by planting malicious software on the target systems to demand ransom. The malware, known as ransomware, forcibly encrypts data inside a target system until the victim pays a ransom to unlock it and restore the system.
On May 13 local time, Colonial, which was forced to shut down its pipelines by hackers, eventually paid the hackers a ransom to restore the compromised system. Colonial paid the ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency and transferred 75 bitcoins, about $5 million, to a wallet designated by the hackers, who received the payment and provided decryption tools to help restore their computer network, according to the sources.
Notably, after receiving the ransom, a website operated by the group Dark Side went down, and Dark Side has informed its partner companies that the group is disbanding due to interference and pressure from US law enforcement agencies.
However, some cyber security experts said that the disbanding of the hacking team is probably just a stunt, and the hackers just want to hide their tracks and avoid the pursuit of law enforcement authorities. They can not rule out that they will restart under another name.
But just three weeks later, hackers have also targeted JBS, the world's largest meat supplier. At present, the origin of the hackers who attacked JBS, and the specific attack method of JBS is not clear, but according to the Australian side of the speculation, the attackers chose to attack the company's system over the weekend, most likely involved ransomware.
