JBS, the world’s largest meat producer suffered a cyberattack, and had to suspend operations at all of its U.S. beef plants Tuesday. However, the company expects to have most of its plants fully operational today.
There are concerns of a potential meat shortage and it’s clear how the shutdown would affect meat prices. According to Fox News, the shuttered plants produce nearly one-quarter of U.S. beef supplies. In total, JBS employs more than 66,000 workers across 84 US-based locations.
Mississippi Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson issued the following statement:
“Like the cyberattack on a petroleum pipeline last month, the cyberattack on JBS, one of the world’s largest meat processors, and its temporary shutdown of operations illustrates the vulnerability of our global meat supply to these types of terrorism. This highlights why having more local meat processing capacity is crucial for our local needs, giving our beef producers more options at the same time. In the meanwhile I call on our federal law enforcement agencies and the military, if necessary, to track, disable and shut down these cyberattackers. Giving in to their “ransomware” demands only emboldens them. The time has come to hack the hackers!”
