We reported yesterday on the “organized cybersecurity attack” on JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier. The attack hit their servers at JBS USA, their subsidiary in this country. At that time, it was unclear what effect it had had on U.S. plants.
Since then, JBS has reported that all nine beef plants, located in Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, have been shut down. The plants produce almost a quarter of all the total beef production in the United States.
This raises the concern about what effect this might all have on the beef supply.
JBS has been in contact with the White House in regard to the attack. The White House revealed it was a ransomware attack as we had earlier surmised. The White House said that a criminal group in Russia was responsible.
“JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization likely based in Russia. The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing.
Meat prices were already on the rise due to lockdowns and shortages. This will not help matters if it goes on for any length of time.
This follows the Colonial Pipeline attack which was also believed to be criminals based in Russia.
Experts suggested that this is Russia trying to show dominance prior to the summit planned between Russia and the U.S. in Geneva and that the use of Russian criminal gangs is a common tactic.
“All of this is Vladimir Putin’s resurgence strategy,” said former CIA Moscow station chief Daniel Hoffman, a Fox News contributor. [….]
Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence officer for Russia and author of the upcoming “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America,” told Fox News the use of criminal gangs is a common tactic by the Kremlin.
“They do that to maintain plausible deniability,” Koffler said, pointing to Russia’s use of mercenaries in Ukraine and Syria. [….]
“Putin is trying to signal to President Biden that he is in a much stronger position ahead of the summit,” Koffler said. [….]
Russia signaled on Monday that they would be sending us “uncomfortable signals.”
“The Americans must assume that a number of signals from Moscow … will be uncomfortable for them, including in the coming days,” Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, told RIA news agency, reported Reuters Monday.
But Biden is declining to blame Russia. Biden refused to point a finger at Russia for the Colonial Pipeline attack. The response to the JBS attack seems weak as well and doesn’t tag Putin specifically.
“JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization likely based in Russia. The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing.
This was on top of Biden caving on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and waiving sanctions on the production company and the CEO.
Imagine what the liberal media would have said if this were President Donald Trump responding this way.
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