Meat producer JBS USA hit by cyberattack, White House suspects Russian 'criminal organization' behind it

"On Sunday, May 30, JBS USA determined that it was the target of an organized cybersecurity attack, affecting some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems," the company said in a statement.

The company said it took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company's global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation.

"The company’s backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an Incident Response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible," the company said.

"The company is not aware of any evidence at this time that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of the situation. Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers," the company said.

White House  Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Russian criminal organization is blamed to be behind the incident.

" The White House has offered assistance to JBS, and our team and the Department of Agriculture have spoken to their leadership several times in the last day.  JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization likely based in Russia," Pierre said.

The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals.  The FBI is investigating the incident and CISA is coordinating with the FBI to offer technical support to the company in recovering from the ransomware attack," Pierre said.