Last week it was revealed that the world’s biggest meat supplier, JBS, had paid criminals $11 million worth of Bitcoin following a ransomware attack on its systems.
JBS USA today confirmed it paid the equivalent of $11 million in ransom in response to the criminal hack against its operations. At the time of payment, the vast majority of the company’s facilities were operational. In consultation with internal IT professionals and third-party cybersecurity experts, the company made the decision to mitigate any unforeseen issues related to the attack and ensure no data was exfiltrated.
“This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally,” said Andre Nogueira, CEO, JBS USA. “However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers.”
I agree that for any company hit by a ransomware attack it’s a tricky dilemma. Do you pay millions of dollars to those who attacked you? That may possibly prevent your assailants from releasing any stolen data, and provide you with a decryption key to help you recover your systems… but it also encourages others to engage in ransomware attacks in future, against not just your own business but other organisations around the world.
Your decision might be viewed as pragmatic, and help your company get back up on its feet, and be reassuring to your commercial partners and staff, but they aren’t the only ones who are watching with interest.
Because it appears that members of the US Congress have raised an eyebrow about how JBS responded ..
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