Tue Jun 1 05:10:30 2021
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Where’s the beef?
Cyberattack Paralyses JBS Meatworks Across Australia and North-South America
A cyberattack has paralysed the world’s largest meat processing company JBS with operations shutting down in Australia and further stoppages expected across North and South America.
Australian subsidiary, JBS Australia, was forced to close its operations on Monday and cancel its beef and lamb processing orders as a response.
CEO Brent Eastwood confirmed the attack and said the attack on JBS’s information technology systems has impacted meat sales and lot feeding operations, with incoming cattle unable to be inducted without the IT systems operational.
Six sites in Australia, across Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, have shut down, with stoppages in North America and South America expected as well, Eastwood told meat industry news site Beef Central.
The company is still trying to assess the extent of the damage and could not comment on when operations would come back online.
Thousands of employees have also been stood down without pay in response.
“The meat in the sandwich is that this is a concerted effort against Australian business, and the workers will suffer as a result of that,” Journeaux told ABC Radio Brisbane.
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“There’s six sites in Queensland that will be affected … and around the nation, there would be significantly more,” he added. “In most processing facilities, the workers are on daily hire arrangements, and unfortunately, if they don’t work, they don’t get paid.”
— Cyberattack Paralyses JBS Meatworks Across Australia and North-South America
— A cyberattack has paralysed the world’s largest meat processing company JBS with operations shutting down in Australia and …
(*5e05c158*):: +public! Supply will be cut as demand expands with the “reopening” and we will see wild inflation into the next set of wars…
e Brazilian owners (brothers) of this company are one of the most corrupt businessmen in the country.
Research about Joesley Batista, Lava Jato, PT, LULA.
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The impact is already being seen in JBS’s Australian operations, where the company has cancelled today’s (Monday’s) entire beef and lamb kills across the nation, in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
Overseas, it is still Sunday as this item is published, but it is anticipated that similar actions will happen in processing operations in North America, and potentially, South America* from tomorrow. Monday is a Memorial Day holiday in the US, which may help the company’s North American operations buy some time to find solutions. (*Editor’s note: On Tuesday, JBS confirmed that JBS South American operations are not impacted – see statement below.)
JBS Australia chief executive officer Brent Eastwood confirmed the cyber attack, and the immediate impact on the company’s Australian operations, to Beef Central this morning. He was unable to say how long the Australian stoppage might last.
An IT consultant told Beef Central that history suggested large businesses were often impacted for a week or more by such cyber attacks, before normal operations could resume.
While JBS is still assessing the impact of the damage and what it means to the business, there is no evidence at this stage that the attack has been motivated by animal or environmental activism. There has been a sequence of cyber attacks directed at large corporate entities of all types over the past few months. Australian and international companies recently impacted have included logistics giant Toll Holdings, New Zealand meat processor AFFCo, Asahi Breweries and others.
None were related to animal or environmental activism, but simply hackers ‘doing what they do’, Beef Central was told.
JBS Australia said it was unable to speculate about a resumption to processing operations in Australia, saying the first priority was to assess the impact and extent of the attack.
However it said processing operations would be impossible without normal access to IT and internet systems. The impact has already filtered back to JBS’s meat sales and lotfeeding operations, with incoming feeder cattle unable to be inducted without access to IT systems, Beef Central understands. JBS’s Primo Smallgoods business in Queensland has also been impacted.
Australian red meat processors spend enormous sums of money on electronic cyber security. Companies like Deloitte and EY are frequently used as consultants to try to find ‘cracks’ in some companies’ IT networks, but as this example shows, cyber-attack remains a threat to corporate and smaller businesses of all types, despite such precautions.
Beef Central was told JBS’s IT division resources around the world were working on the hack, but at this point was unable to provide detail until more was known.
The JBS US beef division (which includes operations in Australia) on Tuesday (Australian time) issued the following statement.
— JBS global meat processing operations paralysed by cyber attack – Beef Central
— The world’s largest meat processor, JBS has been paralysed over the weekend by a major cyber attack on its global information technology systems. The impact is already being seen in JBS’s Australian operations, where the company has cancelled today’s entire beef and lamb kills across Queensland, Victoria, NSW and Tasmania. ..Read More
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JBS USA Cybersecurity Attack
On Sunday, May 30, JBS USA determined that it was the target of an organised cybersecurity attack, affecting some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems.
The company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company’s global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation. The company’s backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an Incident Response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible.
The company is not aware of any evidence at this time that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of the situation. Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers.
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(*5e05c158*):: Some more notes
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• In its Q2 Beef Quarterly report, the agribusiness **banking specialist** says so tight is the global beef market that localised disruptions – including droughts and increases in consumer demand in individual countries or regions – are now exerting a much more “and dramatic impact” on global trade.
• Rabobank senior animal proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird (right) says the local drivers that are fuelling high beef and cattle prices in individual countries – such as post-drought herd rebuilding in Australia and a re-opening food service sector in the US – will eventually correct and cause an adjustment in prices.
• “However, with the tight global supply situation – underpinned by Chinese demand which is expected to remain firm – we believe the global market has seen a fundamental step up,” he said
• Australia
• The record low cattle supply in Australia has also been feeding into the tight global market, the report says, with successive years of drought and large livestock liquidation having resulted in the country’s lowest beef cattle herd in 30 years.
◦ Australian young cattle prices had jumped almost 30 per cent year on year in February 2020 and since risen another 20 per cent to February 2021, the report noted.
Mr Gidley-Baird said the cattle price increases had been significantly driven by improved seasonal conditions in 2020 which were carrying into the current year. These had seen intense buying competition by producers looking to restock properties and generate value out of increased pasture production.