Tag Archives: meat supplier

Cybersecurity

Cyberattack on Meat Supplier JBS Forces Shut Down of Multiple U.S. Plants

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Cybersecurity

On Sunday Brazil-based JBS was targeted by a cyberattack that forced the shutdown of its facilities in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. The ransomware attack affected servers that support the company’s IT systems in North America and Australia. It is suspected to have originated from an organization based in Russia, according to reports.

It is expected that most of the company’s beef, pork, poultry and prepared food plants will be operational today, JBS said in a statement last night. Thus far the company is unaware of any customer, supplier or employee data that has been compromised.

Cyberattacks coming from Russia have increased at a significant rate and are likely to continue. “The fact that this kind of activity is happening with a relatively high frequency and also all signs sort of leading back to Russia, that is very disturbing,” said Javed Ali, a former National Security Council director of counterterrorism, in an ABC News report. “I don’t think we’ve seen a period of this kind of high-intensity cyber operations from Russian soil directed against a variety of different U.S. targets arguably ever, unless the government has been tracking this and the public details of those types of operations haven’t been revealed before.”

Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

A Broken Record

By Susanne Kuehne
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Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud, E.Coli, Decernis
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

Over the course of almost a full year, laboratory documents were falsified by the owner and the quality control officer of a Connecticut meat processing company. None of the reported beef samples were actually taken and tested for E. coli. The letterhead of a formerly utilized inspection laboratory was fraudulently used to falsify the test documents, an act that carries a maximum term of five years in prison. Fortunately, no illness was reported from consumers who purchased the meat products.

Resources

  1. The United States Attorney’s Office (September 23, 2019). “Quality Control Officer of Connecticut Meat Supplier Admits Fabricating E. Coli Test Results”. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut.