Image credit: JBS Foods Australia
Meat processor JBS has warned it could take the company some time to recover from an “organised cyber security attack” that has impacted servers in its Australian and North American operations.
The attack was first reported by industry news website Beefcentral, which quoted JBS Australia CEO Brent Eastwood saying that the full impact of the attack was still being assessed.
Reuters reported that JBS’s Primo Smallgoods business in Queensland has also been impacted by IT system outages as a result of the incident.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, JBS USA confirmed it had been targeted and that “some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems” were offline.
“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,” it said in a statement.
“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.”
JBS Foods Australia claims to be “the country’s largest meat and food processing company, operating technologically advanced production and value-added facilities and feedlots, whilst also owning Australia’s largest smallgoods manufacturer, and operating a leading high-quality meat cutting and case ready production facility.”
It employs about 11,000 people in Australia and New Zealand.
