- Cyber Monitoring Center classifies JLR incident at level 3 (M&S was level 2)
- Wholesale sales fell 24.2% year over year, Jaguar undergoes transformation
- The attack cost approximately £1.9 billion (with £1.5 billion coming from government loans).
The August attack on Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover is estimated to have cost £1.9bn ($2.6bn), according to new PakGazette information.
More than 5,000 related organizations in the UK have been affected, including suppliers and dealers, widening the impact of the breach.
A report from the Cyber Monitoring Center described the incident as “the most economically damaging cyber event to ever hit the UK”, and ranked its effects higher than those of the M&S breach earlier this year.
JLR cyberattack could be ‘most economically damaging’ in UK
During the lockdown, which lasted between 5 and 6 weeks, JLR was losing approximately £50 million per week. It later took out a 1.5 billion pound ($2 billion) government loan to support both its core operations and its suppliers.
Although systems are back up and running to some extent, it could take until early 2026 before JLR reaches a full state of recovery.
JLR factories in Solihull, Halewood and Wolverhampton were affected, affecting the company’s daily production of 1,000 cars.
As well as describing the JLR attack as the “most economically damaging” event in UK history, the Cyber Monitoring Center also classified the breach as a level three incident, with five being the highest, suggesting that potential future attacks could be even more damaging.
To put this into perspective, the attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods earlier this year were rated a level two, with total costs estimated between £270m and £440m.
However, JLR has not yet revealed the type of attack it faced, nor whether or not it paid a ransom (which is not included in the estimate above).
On October 7, JLR noted a 24.2% year-on-year decline in wholesale sales. “It has been a challenging quarter for JLR. In the first two months our performance was strong and in line with our expectations,” explained CEO Adrian Mardell.
The cyber incident came just months after the company confirmed it would reduce Jaguar sales as the brand undergoes a total reinvention.
“We know there is much more to do, but our recovery is firmly underway,” Mardell added.
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