The Biden administration refused to advise or assist the company despite widespread disruption. On May 31, a cyber attack on JBS SA in Brazil, the largest meat producer globally and in the US, forced the shutdown of all its US beef processing plants, wiping out output from facilities that supply 23% of American supplies. Both cyber attacks on vital industries used ransomware to extort payouts. The hacker group DarkSide was reported to be behind the Colonial Pipeline attack and received $90 million in Bitcoin over the last 9 months from 47 different wallets. Biden and the FBI blamed entities from Russia, but not the government, for the attacks. Biden's Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo claimed that cyber attacks like the one that hit the Colonial pipeline last week are "here to stay."

A video featuring Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, shows him warning against major cyber attacks on the power supply, transportation, hospitals, and more; he said that the cyber attacks would make the COVID-19 crisis seem like a minor disturbance in comparison.