Meat processor JBS USA has paid a ransom equivalent to $11m in response to a cyberattack against its operations.

The criminal hack impacted some of the servers supporting the company’s North American and Australian information technology (IT) systems.

In a statement, JBS said that the FBI declared the attack as ‘one of the most specialised and sophisticated cybercriminal groups in the world’.

As a result of the cybersecurity attack, JBS has stopped beef and lamb kills across New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland in Australia.

JBS USA CEO Andre Nogueira said that the decision was taken following consultations with internal IT professionals and third-party cybersecurity experts.

He said it was made ‘to mitigate any unforeseen issues related to the attack and ensure no data was exfiltrated’.

Nogueira said: “This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally.

“However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk of our customers.”

JBS closed Australian operations late last month after its units in the country and North America were affected by an organised cybersecurity attack.

Third parties are currently executing forensic investigations.

Furthermore, JBS said that the preliminary probe results found no data related to the company, customer or employee was compromised in the attack.