A cyber-attack has “severely disrupted” Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) car manufacturing, together with at its two major UK crops.
The corporate, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, mentioned it took speedy motion to minimize the affect of the hack and is working shortly to restart operations.
JLR’s retail enterprise has additionally been badly hit at a historically a well-liked time for shoppers to take supply of a brand new car – however there is no such thing as a proof any buyer information had been stolen, it mentioned.
The assault started on Sunday as the most recent batch of latest registration plates turned obtainable on Monday, 1 September.
The BBC understands that the assault was detected whereas in progress, and the corporate shut down its IT programs in an effort to minimise any harm.
Staff on the firm’s Halewood plant in Merseyside have been informed by electronic mail early on Monday morning to not come into work whereas others have been despatched residence, as first reported by the Liverpool Echo.
The BBC understands the assault has additionally hit JLR’s different major UK manufacturing plant at Solihull, with employees there additionally despatched residence.
The corporate mentioned: “We took speedy motion to mitigate its affect by proactively shutting down our programs. We are actually working at tempo to restart our world purposes in a managed method.”
It added: “At this stage there is no such thing as a proof any buyer information has been stolen however our retail and manufacturing actions have been severely disrupted.”
It isn’t but identified who’s accountable for the hack, however it follows crippling assaults on outstanding UK retail companies together with Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
In each circumstances, the hackers sought to extort cash.
Whereas JLR’s assertion makes no point out of a cyber-attack, a separate submitting by guardian firm Tata Motors to the Bombay Inventory Alternate referred to an “IT safety incidence” inflicting “world” points.
The Nationwide Crime Company mentioned: “We’re conscious of an incident impacting Jaguar Land Rover and are working with companions to higher perceive its affect.”
In 2023, as a part of an effort to “speed up digital transformation throughout its enterprise”, JLR signed a five-year, £800m take care of company stablemate Tata Consultancy Providers to supply cybersecurity and a spread of different IT companies.
The halt in manufacturing is a recent blow to the agency which lately revealed a droop in income attributed to growing in prices attributable to US tariffs.
