Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack crisis enters second week with global production, including at Halewood in Merseyside, shut down with no clear end in sight. Tony McDonough reports
For the second week running carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is making no cars amid a devastating cyber attack.
At the beginning of last week JLR shut down production at its plant in Halewood in Merseyside, where it employs around 3,500, as well as at plants in Solihull, Wolverhampton, Castle Bromwich, Slovakia, China, India and Brazil.
On Tuesday, a group of hackers believed to be behind the recent cyber attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S), went on messaging app Telegram claiming to be behind the JLR incident. They call themselves ‘Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters’.
If true, that would be particularly worrying for the automotive giant as it took M&S around six weeks to recover from the incident. It isn’t only JLR itself that is impacted but also its extensive supply chain.
A report in the Sunday Times referenced Evtec, WHS Plastics, SurTec and OPmobility, who employ more than 6,000 in the UK between them, as being among the suppliers who have told their workforces to stay at home.
READ MORE: Firm wins £30m contract to light up Liverpool
In its latest update JLR said: “We continue to work around the clock to restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner following the recent cyber incident. We are working with third‑party cybersecurity specialists and alongside law enforcement.
“We want to thank all our customers, partners, suppliers and colleagues for their patience and support. We are very sorry for the disruption this incident has caused. Our retail partners remain open and we will continue to provide further updates.”
It has been a troubled year for JLR already. In August LBN revealed the wrangle over tariffs in the US had hit quarterly revenues and profits in the three months to June 30.