JBS is one of the world's largest food companies. It has operations in 15 countries and has customers in about 100 countries, according to its website. Its brands include Pilgrim's, Great Southern and Aberdeen Black.
The global meat supplier paid an $11 million ransom in response to a cyberattack that led to the shutdown of its entire US beef processing operation last week.
The ransom payment was made in bitcoin and it was paid to shield JBS meat plants from further disruption and to limit the potential impact on restaurants, grocery stores and farmers that rely on JBS, said Andre Nogueira, chief executive of Brazilian meat company JBS SA’s U.S. division.
"This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally," said Andre Nogueira, CEO of JBS USA, in the statement. "However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers."
The cyberattack affected servers supporting JBS's IT systems in North America and Australia. The US government has attributed the ransomware attack to REvil, a criminal gang believed to be based in Russia and/or Eastern Europe.
"Preliminary investigation results confirm that no company, customer or employee data was compromised," JBS said in Wednesday's statement.