Just a few weeks after Russia-based hackers crippled fuel supplies with a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, a similar group (also apparently based in Russia) has hit leading meatpacker JBS over the Memorial Day weekend. Based in Brazil, JBS is the largest meatpacker in the U.S. with massive feedlots and slaughterhouses across the country. Beef, chicken, and poultry production are all affected by the outage at JBS facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Australia (JBS has said their Brazil systems were not impacted.) That’s right. They’re coming for our bacon!

READ MORE: Colonial Pipeline Incident: Yet Another Cybersecurity Wake Up Call

International Ramifications

While the bacon assault may be enough to trigger the average red-blooded American, a more important contrast to the Colonial Pipeline attack is that JBS is a multi-national corporation. The U.S. government’s primary response to Colonial Pipeline was based on the importance of fuel and energy transportation. This led to a recent security directive for U.S. pipelines that require operators to mete out any discrepancies in their cybersecurity planning and response with the TSA Pipeline Security Guidelines.

READ MORE: Cyberattack Shuts Major US Fuel Pipeline: Why Colonial Pipeline & Why Now?

Meanwhile, while the U.S. government can exercise some control over the domestic operations of JBS, its ability to mandate rules to international facilities may be severely limited. But who wouldn’t list bacon as an “essential resource”?

Protect The Bacon

The results we saw with the Colonial Pipeline attack and subsequent shutdown were higher prices, panic buying, and fuel shortages. Though the food supply chain isn’t part of our “critical infrastructure”, the economic impact on both the industry and consumers could be devastating. Luckily, JBS has been able to bring its systems and processing back online in short order. What we’re seeing with these cyberattacks is that no industry sector is immune and clearly the attacks aren’t limited to the U.S.

To ensure your system and networks are as hardened against cyberattacks as they can be:

• Approach access with a “Zero Trust design”—access to what functions and data are necessary, but only what’s necessary to perform the role;
• Inventory and monitor network endpoints to identify any unauthorized changes or network access;
• Segregate operational systems from enterprise networks and the Internet via physical separation, firewalls, and other measures, as necessary;
• Continuously monitor systems and networks for unauthorized access or changes such as the insertion of malware or other malicious code or unauthorized physical hardware devices; and
• Protect the bacon at all costs!

READ MORE: 5 Supply Chain Lessons From The Colonial Pipeline Outage