(NAFB) – This week’s ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, has refocused agriculture’s attention on cybersecurity and again raised key economic issues for the ag and food industries.

USDA has contacted several major meat processors after the cyberattack that temporarily shut down several JBS plants. The FBI is investigating, and President Biden has launched a “rapid strategic review.”

Food production is considered a national security issue, and as COVID-19 showed dramatically, an economic issue, according to AFB Economist Veronica Nigh.

As the JBS hack showed…

Nigh says agriculture is doing all it can to head off further damage from cyber-attacks.

The Washington Post reports food processing has been a target for ransomware attackers for months. Quoting an intelligence analyst at one cyber firm, the Post reports that “at least 40” attacks “have been publicly reported over the last year.” The latest extortion attempt follows that against the Colonial Pipeline that disrupted gas supplies on the East Coast and is also feared coming from a Russia-linked criminal group.