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JBS Paid An $11 Million Ransom To Cyberattackers

The meatpacking company JBS confirms it paid an $11 million ransom to hackers who targeted its U.S. and Australia operations.
David Zalubowski
/
AP
The meatpacking company JBS confirms it paid an $11 million ransom to hackers who targeted its U.S. and Australia operations.

JBS, the world's largest meat processor, confirms it paid a ransom of $11 million to cyberattackers.

CEO Andre Nogueira of JBA USA called it a "very difficult decision to make."

"However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers."

JBS is based in Brazil, but last week's hack targeted servers in the U.S. and Australia.

The FBI says REvil, a Russian-speaking gang, was responsible.

It was one of a series of high-profile ransomware attacks, one of which focused on Colonial Pipeline and resulted in the company shutting down its operations in the Southeastern U.S. Word that distribution had stopped led to drivers panic-buying gasoline, draining one gas station after another in large parts of the South and the East Coast.

Colonial said later it had immediately informed the FBI and other authorities about the ransom demand, and also paid a ransom of $4.4 million.

Federal law enforcement announced this week that its new Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force had recovered more than half of the money paid by Colonial.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Barbara Campbell

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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