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After hacker attack: meat producer JBS pays ransom

After hacker attack: meat producer JBS pays ransom

Status: 10.06.2021 7:13 AM

The world’s largest meat company, JBS, appears to have paid a ransom of $11 million after a hacker attack. It was another incident in a series of corporate racketeering cases in the United States.

The US subsidiary of Brazilian meat processor JBS paid the equivalent of $11 million in ransom after a hacker attack. The Dallas-based company said the amount was paid to prevent further disruption by hackers and to restore the smooth running of affected sites. According to American media, the payment was made in bitcoin.

According to the US government, the company received a ransom note from a criminal organization likely based in Russia. The attack paralyzed JBS production in Australia and affected Canada and the United States.

“difficult decision”

“This was a very difficult decision for our company and for me personally,” explained Managing Director Andre Nogueira. “However, we felt that this decision should be made in order to avoid any potential risks to our customers.”

Investigations are still ongoing, but preliminary findings indicated that “no company, customer or employee data was compromised.”

American investigators suspect that Russia is behind this

US President Joe Biden said last week that investigators have linked Russia to the JBS case. The company said that “GPS USA was in constant contact with government officials throughout the incident.”

In the United States, the state and companies are currently fighting a series of attacks using extortion programs known as “ransomware”. The data of the systems that have been attacked is encrypted. Hackers demand cash payments in cryptocurrency so that they can open access again and not publish data.

Pay the ransom in Bitcoin

Last month, US utility company Colonial Pipeline was also the victim of a hacker attack with an extortion Trojan that temporarily shut down the entire pipeline network. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation blames a hacker group called “Darkside” for the attack and later tracked down a ransom of 75 bitcoins paid by a colonel – at the time worth $4.4 million.