U.S. Rep. Jim Baird (R-IN) recently led colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden, encouraging the administration to hold China and Russia accountable for food industry cyberattacks.
The correspondence addressed recent cyberattacks on infrastructure and the nation’s food system and efforts to arrive at a solution to prevent future attacks.
Specifically, the legislators highlighted the recent Memorial Day weekend ransomware attack on JBS USA, North America’s largest meatpacker by volume, which shut down the company’s operations across North America until they paid the Russian hacking group REvil a ransom of $11 million.
“Ransomware of any kind poses a dangerous threat to key components of America’s critical infrastructure, including our food supply system,” Baird said. “Attacks on segments of our food supply chain can have a devastating and wide-ranging impact on our nation, which is why I am calling on the Biden Administration to recognize these attacks for what they truly are: egregious and legitimate threats to America’s national security.”
Baird said the American people deserve to have confidence in the nation’s ability to manage acts of hostility from outside influences, adding that China and Russia must be held accountable.
“The company (JBS) is an exclusive supplier to countless consumer brands, supermarket chains, and food service providers on a national scale and contracts production with thousands of farms across the country,” the letter stated. “While unexpected interruptions to business-as-usual at any point in the food supply chain have the opportunity to create significant disruptions to the industry, these same interruptions to a firm the size of JBS can have dramatic consequences across the economy. For chronic offenders such as China and Russia – we urge a strong, punitive stance in relations and tangible action seeking accountability.”