Congressman Frank Lucas joins Congressman Jim Baird of Indiana and other members of Congress in a letter encouraging the Biden Administration hold those who perpetrate a cyberattack responsible. In a letter to President Biden, Lucas and Baird outline a recent ransomware attack on JBS USA, one of the largest meatpackers in the nation. They want the Administration to consider food chain issues as national security issues.
“Over the past few years, halting disruptions of our food supply chain have hearkened Americans’ watchful eyes. From the ranch to the grocery store, very rarely has the significance of food security resonated across the entire agriculture industry at a time like it is now. There is no greater threat to national security than a threat to our food supply chain,” said Lucas. “As cyberattacks are becoming more and more prevalent, we must address and protect America’s critical infrastructure- whether it be our food, energy, or financial systems. Ensuring we build upon existing cyber capabilities and strengthening the cyber resiliency of our industries is critical to lessening the potential harm to America’s economy and our daily lives. I implore President Biden and his Administration to work with Congress and across different agencies to better prepare and mitigate future attacks on our food supply chain and other critical infrastructure industries.”
You can read the letter to Biden below.
June 29, 2021
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden:
We write to express abundant concern over the recent hacking and ransomware attack of JBS USA, and to urge your leadership in finding a solution to prevent future attacks.
Ransomware attacks of any kind are dangerous instances of organized crime, espionage, terror, and extortion; and if unchecked by the nation from which they originate, should be seen as adversarial actions. Recent cyberattacks that have targeted key components of America’s critical infrastructure – like the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the hacking of New York City’s subway system, local government agency breaches, hospitals, and now an attack on a critical component of the American food supply chain – are especially egregious and are legitimate threats to America’s national security.
JBS USA is North America’s largest meatpacker by volume – processing nearly 25% of US beef, roughly 20% of domestic pork, and is the second largest poultry producer. The company 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. 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 – which operates on a tight, just-in time delivery model – these same interruptions to a firm the size of JBS can have dramatic consequences across the economy.
As America witnessed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, even localized outages of processing capabilities in this sector can erode consumer confidence, stimulate panic buying, and create long-term distortion in commodity, retail, and service markets. Disruptions of JBS’s processing capacities altered national daily slaughter rates by upwards of 27,000 head of cattle per day before operations resumed. This capacity reduction distorted market prices with a sharp price decline and subsequent rally. Though relatively fortunate that distortions in this case resolved quickly, future prolonged attacks of this nature could have a devastating impact on domestic food stability.
As your Administration and the whole of the federal government continue the investigation and response to this attack, we urge you to consider this attack and any future attacks on segments of the food supply chain as the national security threats that they are. The stability of the US domestic food system is critical, not only as a foundation of the American economy and a means to avoid the devastations of famine, but also as a necessary tool in fully resourcing the nutritional needs of our citizenry and military personnel, ensuring food safety and minimizing risk of foodborne illness or infectious disease, contributing to energy security, and as a tremendously valuable leverage in international trade negotiations. Simply put, America’s food system is critical infrastructure to our nation, and must be protected as such.
Most importantly, we call upon you and your administration to address cyberattacks on American critical infrastructure as the acts of adversarial aggression they embody. Reconsidering diplomatic relationships with nation-states that enable or harbor cyber criminals, shield their actions or identities, or protect the custody of these individuals is a needed escalation to address growing numbers of crippling cyberattacks. These nations and their leaders should be held accountable, and the resolution of these attacks should be leveraged in diplomatic, trade, and other negotiations. For chronic offenders such as China and Russia – whose governments have both been directly connected to cybercrime originating within their borders – we urge a strong, punitive stance in relations, and tangible action seeking accountability.
Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are an unacceptable, serious threat to the American way of life and democracy, and they must end immediately. We can no longer tolerate the complicity of our adversaries in these attacks, nor the tools and resources that enable them. The American people demand security and confidence in our nation’s ability to manage acts of hostility by outside influences. We call on your urgent action to resolve this matter and ensure America’s national security.
Sincerely,
