A Brazilian meat processing company’s American arm said it has received a demand for ransom following a cyberattack that forced a production cut. The business believes the demand came out of Russia.

The claims were made public through the White House on Tuesday. 

Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokesperson of the White House said the demand came from “a criminal organisation likely based in Russia”, reported AFP.

Also read: Russian opposition figure Dmitry Gudkov detained ahead of parliamentary elections

The White House statement comes as yet another major US sector finds its operations under duress, less than a month after a major cyberattack temporarily shut down the Colonial Pipeline network supplying about 45% of the fuel consumed on the US east coast.

“The White House has offered assistance to JBS, and our team and the Department of Agriculture have spoken to their leadership several times in the last day,” Jean-Pierre said.

“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.”

JBS, a company based in Brazil, has running operations through continents. It is spread through the US, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico and United Kingdom among others.

“JBS USA determined that it was the target of an organised cybersecurity attack, affecting some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems,” the company said in a statement Monday.

JBS said its backup servers were not affected by the incident, but the statement did not offer details on the status of its plants. The company did not immediately respond to AFP queries.

Up to 10,000 people employed with the company in Australia were reportedly sent back home with pay after the facilities experienced a work freeze, reported AFP citing a union representative.

“It’s affecting JBS processing facilities around (Australia),” AMIEU Queensland branch secretary Matt Journeaux told AFP. “They have stood down workers across JBS operations.”

Journeaux said there was no word yet from the company on when operations will resume.

Several plants in North America were also affected by the incident.

The Facebook page for JBS’ Green Bay, Wisconsin plant said there would be no production Monday. Another plant in Utah was also not operating, said a person who answered the phone and declined to give his name, reported AFP.

A plant in Iowa said four departments would not operate on Monday, while remaining units were working normally, according to its Facebook page.

JBS’ Canada division canceled some operations on Monday and early Tuesday, but said on Facebook later in the day that normal production would resume.

The United Food and Commercial Workers local representing workers in Colorado and Wyoming said “kill” and “fabrication” shifts were canceled on Monday, according to its Facebook page.

Colonial’s multi-day shutdown in May sparked panic buying in some eastern states, and ended when the company paid $4.4 million in ransom to the hackers.

The online vulnerabilities of US oil conduits led the federal government last week to impose cybersecurity requirements on petroleum pipelines for the first time.

A flurry of such incidents have been reported in the last year, including the Colonial Pipeline and SoladWinds hack. 

US-based tech giant Microsoft recently said that a Russia-based group, which has support from the authorities, had re-emerged.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on Thursday the US “must adapt to address new and emerging threats”, reported AFP.