Lawmakers Scrutinize Meatpacking as JBS Rebounds From Cyberattack
03 Junio 2021 - 05:49PM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Jacob Bunge and David Winning
JBS SA meat plants ramped up production after a cyberattack this
week, while some farm-state lawmakers called for an overhaul of
practices that they said had left meat production vulnerable to
calamities.
JBS plants in the U.S., Canadian and Australia were running
again on Thursday, with some scheduling 10-hour shifts or weekend
work, according to notices shared with employees. JBS said its
plants around the world were operating at normal capacity Thursday
as the company rebounded from what federal officials called a
ransomware attack.
The recovery efforts by JBS came as officials in Washington
looked for ways to address the threat posed by ransomware. John
Carlin, a senior official at the Justice Department, issued a
memorandum to U.S. attorney's offices around the country on
Thursday urging all ransomware investigations to be coordinated
with a ransomware task force created in April.
JBS said Thursday that after identifying the intrusion, it
notified federal authorities and shut down all its systems to
prevent the attack from spreading and to preserve unaffected
systems. The company previously said the hack was identified on May
30.
JBS said its encrypted backup servers weren't affected, allowing
the company to resume operations more quickly. JBS estimated that
less than one day's worth of meat production was lost during the
shutdowns, and that it would make up the difference by the end of
next week.
"The criminals were never able to access our core systems, which
greatly reduced potential impact," said Andre Nogueira, chief
executive of JBS's U.S. division.
The incursion at JBS, the world's largest meat supplier by
sales, forced abrupt closures of plants handling roughly a fifth of
U.S. beef, pork and poultry production while the company worked to
get its systems back online. Cattle futures prices earlier this
week dived on the prospect that one of the industry's biggest
buyers would temporarily step out of the market, while wholesale
meat prices jumped as retailers, restaurants and distributors
contended with tighter supplies of beef and chicken.
Lawmakers and cattle ranchers said the cyberattack followed
other industry disruptions that proved costly for livestock
producers and consumers. In April 2020, many of the country's
biggest beef and pork plants shut down for weeks at a time after
workers contracted Covid-19, sending livestock markets lower while
wholesale meat prices surged. A similar pattern followed a 2019
fire that temporarily closed a Kansas beef plant owned by Tyson
Foods Inc., which processes around 5% of U.S. cattle.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said the cyberattack's fallout
showed the risks of industry consolidation that has led to a
handful of big companies processing the bulk of America's meat.
"If you had 10 companies instead of four, or 20 companies
instead of four, we'd be less vulnerable if one of them was
hacked," said Mr. Grassley, who has proposed legislation that he
said would require meatpackers to compete more directly on
livestock purchases. "It ought to teach us something, that there
have been too many mergers," he said.
Mr. Grassley and other farm-state senators in March introduced
legislation that would require beef processors to make at least
half of their weekly livestock purchases on the open market, versus
through pre-negotiated contracts. Proponents say the requirement
would make cattle markets more competitive and improve prices for
ranchers. Other senators proposed a separate bill in March that
would set regional minimum cash prices for cattle and increase
reporting requirements for processors.
A JBS spokesman had no immediate comment. The North American
Meat Institute, a trade group for U.S. meat processors, said that
processing capacity among the biggest companies has held relatively
steady for the past 25 years, with more than a decade since the
last big merger and that livestock prices are driven by supply and
demand.
Production at JBS plants in Australia that process roughly a
quarter of that country's red meat came back online faster than
authorities had expected after the attack, Australia's agriculture
minister, David Littleproud, said.
Authorities hope the plants will be operating at close to full
production rates by early next week, Mr. Littleproud said, adding
that authorities want JBS to demonstrate that their computer
systems are properly functioning to guarantee quality
assurance.
Mr. Littleproud said the restarts had damped concerns of
potential shortages in Australia, which exports more than
two-thirds of its beef and veal to markets including the U.S.,
Japan and South Korea.
"We are looking as though we've got a good trajectory to get
there," he said.
--Dustin Volz contributed to this article.
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com and David Winning at
david.winning@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 03, 2021 18:40 ET (22:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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