The Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) has classified the recent cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) as a Category 3 “systemic event,” estimating a financial impact of £1.9 billion—the most economically damaging cyber incident in UK history.
The August 2025 attack forced JLR to shut down IT systems and halt production across major plants in Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton for weeks, disrupting its global supply chain and affecting over 5,000 UK organisations.
According to the CMC, the losses stem largely from halted manufacturing output and cascading supply chain disruptions. While the cause of the breach remains unclear, experts say operational technology may have been compromised, prompting a full IT shutdown.
The incident has also raised concerns about job security in the automotive sector, as suppliers cut pay or laid off workers to stay afloat. The UK government has underwritten a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to help JLR manage liquidity, though no public funds have been drawn yet.
The CMC urged manufacturers to strengthen cyber resilience and prepare for operational disruptions, noting that future high-impact attacks are more likely to target critical operations than steal data.
