JBS Hack Affects Restaurants, Farmers: Why Meat Company Handles Ransomware Attack Better Than Colonial Pipeline

JBS, one of the largest meat suppliers across the globe, was recently attacked by a massive ransomware breach. This online attack is quite serious since the giant meat company confirmed that it was forced to pay around $11 million.

JBS said that it has to do this after its North American and Australian operations were affected. Aside from this, the Brazilian meat supplier also said it temporarily halted cattle slaughtering at all of its U.S. plants for a day last week in response to the cyberattack.

Various experts and other security critics claimed that the action of JBs could disrupt food supply chains and further inflate already high food prices. And now, security researchers claimed that the recent ransomware attack is currently affecting various restaurants and farmers.

JBS Ransomware Affects Farmers and Restaurants

According to The Wall Street Journal, the new ransomware hack that targeted JBS could affect various farmers, as well as restaurant reopenings.

Experts said that this could happen since food distributors are already struggling to get enough meat competed to replace their pork, beef, and chicken orders to the giant meat supplier.

Aside from this, when the JBS processing operations went offline, various cattle and pork slaughtered in the United States were reduced. On the other hand, security experts and other involved investigators added that the meat supplies tightened and wholesale beef and pork prices rose.

Based on one distributor, the price of bone-in pork shoulders used to make pulled pork-like barbecue staples rose 25% last week to a record $2.48 per pound.

JBS Still Handles Attack Better Than Colonial Pipeline?

Although the JBS ransomware attack also affected smaller farmers and restaurants, some experts and security researchers still claimed that the meat supplier was still able to handle the online breach better than the Colonial Pipeline, another company targeted by a group of hackers.

Cyber Security Hub reported that, unlike Colonial Pipeline. Specifically, JBS issued press releases on May 30, June 1, June 2, and June 3 to keep customers and the public apprised of the status of the incident. Thanks to this effort, the meat supplier was able to ease the tension regarding the ransomware breach somehow.

For more news updates about JBS ransomware attacks and other security breaches, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by: Griffin Davis