Uk Government Bails Out Jaguar Land Rover With £1.5b Loan After Hack Disrupts Vehicle Production For Weeks

The U.K. authorities has confirmed it will guarantee a commercialized slope indebtedness of £1.5 cardinal ($2bn) for carmaking elephantine Jaguar Land Rover aft a hack forced nan institution to unopen down its carmaking accumulation lines and near downstream suppliers astatine consequence of bankruptcy.

In a statement connected Sunday, U.K. ministers said that nan government-backed indebtedness will “bolster JLR’s rate reserves truthful it tin support its proviso concatenation which has been greatly impacted by nan shutdown.” 

JLR will person 5 years to salary backmost nan loan. 

Companies crossed nan U.K. that proviso parts and products to JLR, galore of which are mini businesses, person been affected by the company’s weeks-long pause successful conveyance production. The U.K. authorities said location are astir 120,000 group successful nan broader proviso concatenation whose jobs and activity trust connected JLR’s ongoing operations.

BBC News reports that this is believed that this is nan first time that a institution has received financial assistance from nan U.K. authorities pursuing a cyberattack.

JLR unopen down its web connected August 31 aft detecting hackers successful its system. Hackers associated pinch a financially motivated crime group linked to earlier hacks targeting the U.K. unit sector took in installments for nan breach. JLR later said that nan hackers had stolen immoderate institution information from its systems, while unit were told to enactment astatine location while nan institution rebuilt its network. 

JLR is said to person mislaid immoderate £50 cardinal arsenic a consequence of nan shutdowns. However, nan institution made astir £2.5 cardinal successful pre-tax profit during 2024, suggesting nan institution will beryllium capable to upwind nan financial storm.

Industry diary The Insurer reports that JLR did not person cybersecurity insurance, which whitethorn person covered immoderate of nan costs of recovering from nan breach.

But immoderate information experts person based on that nan indebtedness sends a awesome that could encourage hackers and threat actors to target U.K. organizations if they deliberation nan U.K. authorities will bail retired companies that person underinvested aliases trim their cybersecurity defenses.

JLR, which is owned by India-headquartered Tata Motors, besides faces disapproval for its determination to outsource its cybersecurity teams to Tata’s IT and tech support arm, Tata Consulting Services (or TCS), successful nan years earlier nan cyberattack. 

TCS, which provides IT helpdesk services for illustration resetting worker passwords for companies astir nan world, is besides thought to beryllium nan constituent of intrusion for nan breaches astatine Marks & Spencer and the Co-op, 2 apical U.K. unit giants that besides were hacked by nan aforesaid hacking group successful caller months, per nan BBC. 

In a statement Monday, JLR said it plans to resume car accumulation “in nan coming days.” The carmaker has already missed respective deadlines for its recovery.