Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack Halts Global Production, Repair Operations for Weeks

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been hit by a significant cyberattack that has forced the suspension of global car production and severely disrupted its supply chain and dealership operations. Production at key plants including Solihull, Halewood, Wolverhampton, and Castle Bromwich has been halted since Sunday, with no clear return date, impacting thousands of customers awaiting new vehicles and repairs. The cyberattack has rendered vital systems inoperable, including diagnostic tools and electronic parts catalogues, leaving many vehicles unable to be serviced or registered, which poses legal issues for drivers with failed MoTs. Experts warn that recovery could take weeks or even months, with JLR proactively taking some systems offline to protect data, although there is currently no evidence that customer data has been stolen. The attack, reportedly claimed by a British hacker group linked to previous JLR breaches, has caused widespread concern among dealerships and independent garages, which face significant challenges in obtaining parts and servicing vehicles. This crisis marks one of the most severe disruptions to the UK automotive sector since the pandemic, highlighting the vulnerability of critical industrial IT infrastructure to cyber threats.