JBS

Ransomware attacks have become a part of everyday life, for small business and large businesses alike, and that includes major Ag and food interests like JBS. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack warns that Agriculture must be prepared. JBS reportedly paid $11 million in ransom to hackers, just weeks after Colonial Pipeline paid $4 million ...

With cyberattacks against JBS and Colonial pipeline in the news, USDA is stepping up its data security efforts. "We are having conversations, I just had one yesterday about how we are going to ensure that we have a strong system within USDA that we can bolster the capacity to make our systems strong," noted Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewel Bronaugh ...

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley joined fellow Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, in introducing legislation on meatpacking. The bill, the Meat Packing Special Investigator Act, would address the "anti-competitive" practices in the meat and poultry industries that threaten the nation’s food supply and national security. The ...

The FBI is investigating, and the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee wants to know if Russia was behind the recent ransomware attack on JBS USA. Chairman David Scott said the “cowardly hacking” of critical U.S. “food, energy, and financial systems must be stopped,” and Russia must be held “accountable” if it’s somehow involved. While the House Ag Committee Chairman h ...

This week’s ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, has refocused agriculture’s attention on cybersecurity and again raised key economic issues for the Ag and food industries. USDA has contacted several major meat processors, the FBI is investigating, and President Biden has launched a “rapid strategic review.” American Farm Bureau ...

Over the weekend, one of the world’s largest meatpackers announced it had been hit by a cyber-attack. JBS announced Sunday some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems were targeted. Scott Bennett, director of congressional relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation said the company responded immediately. ...

JBS has left the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association as the group is taking a closer look at market consolidation. NCBA, along with other livestock and general farm organizations, met recently to discuss livestock market concerns. And lawmakers have requested the Department of Justice continue, and provide an update on, its cattle market investigation. Poli ...

Meatpacker JBS and chicken company Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation say they’ll pay 100 dollars to American workers who voluntarily get the COVID-19 vaccine. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of U.S. meatpacking workers were infected, so the bonus will hopefully encourage employees to get the inoculations. COVID-19 ...

A U.S. District Court in Minnesota has dismissed an anti-trust lawsuit against meatpackers like Tyson Foods, JBS, the National Beef Packing Company, and Cargill. R-CALF led several plaintiffs in filing the lawsuit. Chief Judge John Tunheim left open the opportunity for plaintiffs to amend their complaint ...

The Justice Department is formally demanding information from the four biggest meatpackers in the United States, over potential antitrust violations. According to Bloomberg, the DOJ’s antitrust division sent civil investigative demands, which are akin to subpoenas, to the companies…and is talking with state attorneys general about the probe after growing calls for an in-depth investigation. Cur