British firm has not built a car since its IT systems were hacked on 1 September
JLR is set to restart production this week following the incapacitating cyber attack that took down its systems at the start of September.
The Wolverhampton engine plant will be the first to resume operations, reports the BBC. This is understood to be in a limited state at first, with full capacity not expected for several weeks.
Some outlets suggest work in Wolverhampton could restart as early as Monday (6 October). Work at the car maker’s other sites in Merseyside and the West Midlands are expected to restart this week, although exact timings have yet to be announced. Autocar has contacted JLR for further details.
On Friday (3 October), a spokesperson reiterated the statement given on Monday (29 September) that production would resume “in the coming days”. They added that restart assessments were being carried out daily.
The computer hack on 1 September brought all factories to a halt and incapacitated the Land Rover maker, forcing it to shut down its internal computer systems in an effort to protect data from being stolen.
This resulted in production shutdowns at all of its global plants, created issues with parts ordering and stifled retailers.
JLR had originally earmarked 24 September as a potential restart date but pushed any decision back to 1 October. This date was then superseded by a new ‘in the coming days’ statement on 29 September.
It is not yet clear what initial target volumes will initially be, but the statement on 29 September said that when production does restart, it will do so in a “controlled, phased” manner, suggesting volumes will initially be restricted.
The impact on volumes will be made clear when the company releases its production numbers for the quarter, but in the three months to the end of September last year, it produced more than 80,000 cars.
The effect could be costing JLR up to £5 million a day, business economics professor David Bailey has told Autocar.
Government to underwrite £1.5bn JLR loan
The restart announcement comes after the UK government said it will guarantee a £1.5 billion loan to JLR, to help it support suppliers who have been hit by the production shutdown.
The loan to the Tata-owned car maker will be issued by a commercial bank but will be underwritten by the UK government.
As well as costing JLR an estimated £50 million a week, the cyber attack has badly hit the firm’s suppliers.
It’s estimated that around 150,000 people are employed by some 700 British firms that supply JLR, and the UK government has been investigating ways to support them, such as a furlough scheme or loans.
It will instead underwrite a single loan to JLR through the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), with JLR repaying the money over a period of five years.
Business secretary Peter Kyle said on 27 September that the loan guarantee “will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves added that the loan would help JLR “support their supply chain and protect a vital part of the British car industry”.
Since the attack, JLR has been able to restore some of its IT systems following the and has started paying some of its suppliers.
JLR hack: what happened?
Autocar first reported issues affecting JLR on 1 September, when dealers couldn’t register new cars on ‘new plate day’, traditionally one of the year’s busiest for registrations.
In an effort to combat the hack, JLR began “shutting down” its systems on 2 September. It has not produced any cars globally since, leading to millions of pounds of lost income.
The extent of the issues meant JLR brought police and cybersecurity experts in to “restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner”.
During this process, which included an investigation, it was discovered that “some data” was “affected”, according to JLR. Those affected will be contacted, the firm said.
It’s not officially known what data was taken or if a ransom demand has been made, but it is thought it most likely involves customer data, given the involvement of the police.
Who has claimed responsibility for JLR hack?
On 3 September, a group of hackers calling themselves Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters claimed responsibility for the attack on JLR.
This is the same group that hacked Marks & Spencer in May, causing the British retailer seven weeks of disruption and costing £300 million in lost operating profit.
It claimed to have obtained JLR customer data after exploiting a similar flaw in the car maker’s IT system. The claim was made on a Telegram messenger group, where a user linked to the hackers posted a screenshot of what appeared to show JLR’s internal system.
A member of the group revealled that a well-known flaw in SAP Netweaver, a third-party software used by JLR, was exploited to access the data.
The US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned about the flaw earlier this year. An update for the software was released, but whether JLR applied it is unknown.
It’s also not known what data was taken or if a ransom demand has been made of JLR.
Source: Autocar
