The cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will cost an estimated £1.9bn and be the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history, according to researchers.
Experts at the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) have analysed the continuing fallout from the hack, which halted the car giant’s production on September 1 for five weeks and caused widespread delays across JLR’s supply chain.
According to the CMC, 5,000 businesses have been affected in total, and a full recovery will not be reached until January 2026.
JLR declined to comment on the research but said it is bringing portions of manufacturing back online in a phased approach.
Read also:
- Attacks on journalists, abuse of Cybercrime Act on the rise under Tinubu -MRA
- Court jails Corps member for cybercrime, forfeits house, car, others to FG
- EFCC operatives, Justice Ministry officials get cybercrime investigation, prosecution training
The CMC is an independent, non-profit organisation that analyses and categorises cyber events that impact the UK financially.
It has classified the JLR incident as a Category 3 event, which is significant. Category 5 is the most severe.
Ciaran Martin, chair of the CMC’s technical committee, said: “With a cost of nearly £2 billion, this incident looks to have been by some distance the single most financially damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK.
“That should make us all pause and think. Every organisation needs to identify the networks that matter to them, and how to protect them better, and then plan for how they’d cope if the network gets disrupted.”
This is the second report published by the CMC, which uses publicly available information, surveys, and interviews with industry experts and victims to make its assessments.
Although the National Cyber Security Centre also categorises cyber-attacks depending on how severe they are, it does not publish its findings.
The hack began in late August, causing an IT shutdown and a halt in global manufacturing operations, including its major UK plants at Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton.
Dealer systems were intermittently unavailable, and suppliers faced cancelled or delayed orders, with uncertainty about future supply.
The CMC estimated the damage to be in the range of £1.6 billion and £2.1 billion, but predicted the most likely cost would be £1.9 billion.
More than half of the cost will be shouldered by JLR itself, including loss of earnings and the cost of recovery.
The rest is estimated to be incurred by the 5,000 firms in JLR’s supply chain, as well as the local economy, including hospitality and other services.
