Cyberattack on US meat producer shows world’s food supply vulnerable

After a cyberattack crippled the world’s largest meat producer last week, JBS SA meat plants have begun to reopen across the globe. But the meat industry shouldn’t be returning to business as usual — and for the security of our food supply, the Biden administration needs to make sure that it doesn’t.

The JBS subversion, which has been attributed to a Russia-linked cybercriminal group, was the latest in a series of Black Swan events that have crippled large-scale meat producers in recent years. The March 2019 fire in Holcomb, Kansas, destroyed a Tyson Foods plant that processed about 5% of U.S. beef. In April 2020, major hog and chicken processing plants nationwide became Covid-19 hotspots,