Jaguar Land Rover Hack Cost UK Economy $2.5 Billion, Report Finds
A major cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in August caused an estimated £1.9 billion ($2.55 billion) loss to the UK economy, according to a new report from the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC). The breach, which impacted more than 5,000 organizations across the country, is considered one of the most damaging cybersecurity incidents ever recorded in Britain.
The CMC—an independent, non-profit cybersecurity body that includes experts such as the former head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)—warned that total losses could rise if production recovery at JLR is delayed. The report highlighted that most of the financial hit stemmed from lost manufacturing output at JLR and its suppliers.
Production at the luxury automaker, owned by India’s Tata Motors, resumed earlier this month following an almost six-week shutdown. JLR operates three UK factories, which together produce roughly 1,000 vehicles per day.
UK’s Most Costly Cyber Event This Year
The CMC called the JLR hack the most economically damaging cyber event to strike the UK. It also noted similar high-profile breaches this year, including one at Marks & Spencer, which lost about £300 million ($400 million) after an April data breach forced its online services offline for two months.
During the outage, analysts estimated that Jaguar Land Rover lost around £50 million per week, prompting the British government to issue a £1.5 billion loan guarantee in September to help the automaker and its suppliers stay afloat.
The Cyber Monitoring Centre, funded by the insurance industry, classified the JLR attack as a Category 3 systemic event on a five-tier scale, reflecting its severe impact on the company’s supply chain and dealership network.
