It's hands-on work at US meat factory hit by cyber attack

NEW YORK • Employees returning to a JBS meat-processing plant in Texas have been told to be ready to do things a bit differently than normal: Work by hand.

With everything from knife sharpening to production-line speed controls relying on automation, coming back from a cyber attack that forced the world's largest meat producer to halt operations across the globe is set to be a bumpy ride.

Because the plants are coming back online without some of their systems in service, there will be a lot more manual work than usual.

"There's a lot of automation, a lot of reliance on technology," said Mr Wendell Young, head of the United Food and Commercial Workers' local union representing 1,500 members at JBS' beef factory in Souderton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

"You can disconnect some of those wires and switches and run things old-school, but before you do, you want to make sure everything's running smoothly."

Sunday's cyber attack forced the Brazilian food giant to close all of its beef plants in the US - accounting for almost a quarter of American supplies - as well as slow down pork and poultry production.

Also, slaughtering operations across Australia were halted and at least one Canadian plant was idled. The Australian government is seeking technical information from JBS about what happened on its network "with a view to us potentially being able to help other victims before they become victims", Ms Rachel Noble, director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, said on Wednesday.

JBS, which has facilities in 20 countries, also owns Pilgrim's Pride, the second-biggest US chicken producer. The extent of the outages may never be known as JBS did not detail the impact.

US President Joe Biden has said he is "looking" at possible retaliation after the White House linked Russia to the cyber attack. Asked by a reporter on Wednesday if he would take action against President Vladimir Putin, Mr Biden said: "We're looking closely at that issue." The two are expected to meet for a summit in Geneva later this month.

The ransomware attack has again prompted accusations that Russia is at least harbouring cyber criminals. Similar suspicions were raised after ransomware hackers forced the temporary shutdown of the huge Colonial fuel pipeline in the eastern US last month.

Asked if Mr Putin is testing him ahead of their summit, Mr Biden said "no".

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday attributed the attack to "REvil and Sodinokibi", which experts have said are two names for the same hacking group with ties to Russia, and said it was "working diligently to bring the threat actors to justice".

The White House has said Mr Biden will bring up US concerns during the summit on June 16, as well as at earlier summits with allies in the Group of Seven, the European Union and Nato.

"We expect this to be an issue of discussion throughout the President's trip," press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

"Harbouring criminal entities that are intending to do harm, that are doing harm to the critical infrastructure in the United States, is not acceptable," she said.

The White House has not blamed the Kremlin directly, only suggesting that criminal groups are operating from inside Russia.

However, Ms Psaki said "responsible states do not harbour" cyber criminals. "President Biden certainly thinks that President Putin and the Russian government has a role to play in stopping and preventing these attacks. Hence, it will be a topic of discussion when they meet," she added.

For its part, Russia said on Wednesday that it would be open to any US request for help in investigating the cyber attack.

JBS is a sprawling meat supplier with operations in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and Britain.

The company said the vast majority of its beef, pork, poultry and prepared foods plants were set to run "at near full capacity" yesterday.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE