Russian criminals hack largest meat company JBS

A cyber attack recently shut down a large part of the American meat company JBS. JBS, originally Brazilian, is active worldwide in meat processing and has slaughterhouses for beef, pork and poultry.

The ransomware attack hijacked JBS's corporate files. The cyber attack probably came from a criminal organization operating from Russia. The company subsequently shut down all slaughterhouses in the United States and Australia. About 10,000 workers in the affected slaughterhouses were sent home.

It quickly became clear that it was a ransomware attack, a malicious software that encrypts files on affected systems, after which hackers demand a ransom to make the data accessible again.

JBS has spared no expense to get their systems back online and counter this threat. It is currently unknown whether JBS actually paid ransom.

Every company has a responsibility to protect itself as much as possible against such attacks in order to guarantee their business continuity. For this, they should be assisted by their IT partner. 100% security does not exist! Hackers are creative and are always finding new ways to harm companies. Setting up the IT system securely and providing it with updates (Operating Systems, Application Servers, Software, etc.) is the best weapon against cyber attacks.

In addition, it is advisable to invest in a solid backup system and a disaster recovery plan. This enables companies to be operational again quickly after an attack or other incident.

Source: RTL news