June 14, 2021- 11:06 a.m.
It’s been two weeks since JBS was hit with a cyberattack that impacted its processing capabilities in Australia and North America. Just last week, JBS USA said it paid $11 million in ransom to the cyber attackers in order to get their business fully operational again. However, JBS said the vast majority of the company’s facilities were operational at the time the ransom was paid.Â
The payment was made in bitcoin and now the CEO of the company is getting called on for answers.
Farm Journal Washington Correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer says JBS USA CEO Andre Nogueira received a congressional letter regarding the ransom payments. House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sent a letter to the company CEO on Thursday. The letter is asking for documents and communications related to the May 30 ransomware attack against the company, as well as the $11 million ransom payment. According to reports, JBS says it will comply with the request.Â
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In the letter, Maloney stated in the request is to help prevent the risk of future attacks, as well as insight into whether Congress should pursue specific legislation.
The White House is also addressing the issue by pushing to better trace ransom payments, as well as exploring ways to create consistent rules among international partners for how to trace those payments.
According to an analysis published by cryptocurrency security firm Elliptic, 47 cybercrime victims paid DarkSide a total of $90 million in Bitcoin, putting the average ransom payment of DarkSide victims at just shy of $2 million. That report was released prior to Federal officials announcing they had seized $2.3 million of the cryptocurrency payment that was made during the Colonial Pipeline hack in May. Officials were able to trace a portion of the $4.4 million ransom paid in bitcoin via blockchain.
