US Lawmakers Upset With JBS

Meat packing giant JBS is coming under fire from some US lawmakers, for paying a multi-million-dollar ransom following a cyber-attack this month.

The company revealed last week, it paid the equivalent of 11 million dollars' worth of Bitcoin to what's believed to have been a group of Russian hackers that infiltrated its computer system. The cyber-attack forced the company to shut down operations at several of its plants around the world for at least 24 hours, including the huge plant in Brooks. In a statement, JBS said it was a difficult decision to make but felt it had to be made to prevent any potential risk to customers. But some members of the US Congress are worried that simply paying a ransom to unlock computers will set a dangerous precedent for other would-be hackers to launch similar attacks. Two weeks earlier, a major pipeline company in the US was the victim of a cyber-attack. It also revealed it paid millions of dollars to unlock its computers.