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JLR tentatively restarts production, following £1.5bn government backing

Jaguar Land Rover is to resume car production after a £1.5bn government loan guarantee amid its cyber attack fallout. Debate is growing over the bailout and insurance

Brian McKenna
By
Published: 29 Sep 2025 16:30

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to resume some of its car-making over the next few days, in the wake of the government’s weekend announcement that it will back the company with a £1.5bn loan guarantee to support its supply chain.

According to the BBC, it is believed to be the first time a company has received government help as a result of a cyber attack.

The union Unite, which represents many thousands of workers employed at JLR and throughout its supply chain, has described the government’s financial support of the company as an “important first step”.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is an important first step and demonstrates that the government has listened to the concerns raised in meetings with Unite over recent days. This is exactly what the government should be doing – taking action to protect jobs.

“The money provided must now be used to ensure job guarantees and to also protect skills and pay in JLR and its supply chain.”

By contrast, the Financial Times has reported disquiet among free marketeer commentators that the loan is the thin end of a wedge of government support for private sector companies, quoting Tom Clougherty, executive director of the Institute of Economic Affairs: “Will every cyber attack now result in calls for a taxpayer bailout? Will companies be less inclined to insure themselves against such risks?” And Jamie MacColl, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told the FT there is a “moral hazard” risk of companies eschewing cyber insurance.

Insurance industry journal Cyber Risk Insurer revealed last week that JLR did not have cyber insurance at the time of the attack.

JLR was hit with a massive cyber attack on 31 August, from which it is only tentatively beginning to recover.

Some of the company’s financial IT systems were restarted on 25 September, according to the BBC. These were said to be aiding with payments due to suppliers.

In today’s cyber incident statement, posted on its website, JLR said: “As the controlled, phased restart of our operations continues, we are taking further steps towards our recovery…. Today, we are informing colleagues, retailers and suppliers that some sections of our manufacturing operations will resume in the coming days.

“We continue to work around the clock alongside cyber security specialists, the UK government’s NCSC [National Cyber Security Centre] and law enforcement to ensure our restart is done in a safe and secure manner.” 

Meanwhile, cyber security threat analysis firm Cyfirma has identified the Scattered Spider Lapsus$ Hunters group as the likely attacker, noting also that the Hellcat ransomware group targeted JLR earlier this year in separate attacks, exfiltrating hundreds of internal documents and compromising employee data through stolen Jira credentials.

Cyfirma’s report notes that a Telegram channel calling itself Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters claimed responsibility for Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber security incident in the early days, sharing a screenshot of JLR’s internal IT systems.

The channel’s name merges three English-speaking hacker collectives: Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.

The firm also noted that ShinyHunters Collective has previously been linked to cyber attacks on UK retailers.

“Researchers, media outlets and our own assessment indicate with medium confidence that the group ShinHhunters [sic] Collective may be responsible,” it said.

However, Jaguar Land Rover has yet to report specific details of the attack.

West Midlands MP Liam Byrne, who is chair of the Commons Business and Trade Select Committee, told the BBC that further government intervention might be needed to provide financial backing for JLR and its supply chain.

Read about the Scattered Spider and ShinyHunters cyber gangs attacking high-profile British brands in 2025

  • 22 April 2025: A cyber attack at M&S has caused significant disruption to customers, leaving them unable to make contactless payments or use click-and-collect services.
  • 24 April: M&S is still unable to provide contactless payment or click-and-collect services amid a cyber attack that it says has forced it to move a number of processes offline to safeguard its customers, staff and business.
  • 25 April: M&S shuts down online sales as it works to contain and mitigate a severe cyber attack on its systems.
  • 29 April: An infamous hacking collective may have been behind the ongoing cyber attack on M&S that has crippled systems at the retailer and left its ecommerce operation in disarray.
  • 30 April: A developing cyber incident at Co-op has forced the retailer to pull the plug on some of its IT systems as it works to contain the attack.
  • 1 May: Co-op tells staff to stop using their VPNs and be wary that their communications channels may be being monitored, as a cyber attack on the organisation continues to develop.
  • 1 May: Harrods confirms it is the latest UK retailer to experience a cyber attack, shutting off a number of systems in an attempt to lessen the impact.
  • 2 May: The National Cyber Security Centre confirms it is providing assistance to M&S, Co-op and Harrods as concerns grow among UK retailers.
  • 7 May: No end is yet in sight for UK retailers subjected to apparent ransomware attacks.
  • 13 May: M&S is instructing all of its customers to change their account passwords after a significant amount of data was stolen in a DragonForce ransomware attack.
  • 14 May: Google’s threat intel analysts are aware of a number of in-progress cyber attacks against US retailers linked to the same gang that supposedly attacked M&S and Co-op in the UK.
  • 20 May: Cold chain services provider Peter Green Chilled, which supplies the likes of Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, has been forced to halt operations after succumbing to a ransomware attack.
  • 4 June: A threat group is using voice phishing to trick targeted organisations into sharing sensitive credentials, according to Google. (Cybersecurity Dive)
  • 11 June: So-called Black Swan events expose the blind spots in even the most sophisticated forecasting models, signaling a need to rethink how businesses, and those investing in them, quantify and prepare for cyber risk.
  • 13 June: The recent spate of cyber attacks on UK retailers has to be a wake-up call to build more cyber resilience into digital supply chains and fortify against social engineering attacks.
  • 17 June: Following a series of high-profile attacks on prominent retailers and consumer brands, a group of criminal hackers appears to be expanding their targeting to the insurance sector.
  • 20 June: The UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre has published its first in-depth assessment of a major incident, reflecting on the impact of and lessons learned from cyber attacks on M&S and Co-op.
  • 26 June: US authorities have unsealed charges against 25-year-old hacker Kai West, aka IntelBroker, accusing him of being behind multiple cyber attacks.
  • 27 June: Multiple reports are emerging of cyber attacks on airlines – Google Cloud’s Mandiant believes them to be linked.
  • 2 July: Australian flag carrier Qantas is investigating significant data theft of personal information for up to 6 million customers after a third-party platform used by its call centre was compromised.
  • 2 July: A developing cyber attack at Australian airline Qantas that started at a third-party call centre is already being tentatively attributed to the same gang that hit UK retailers. Find out more and learn about the next steps for those affected.
  • 8 July: The government should extend ransomware reporting mandates to businesses to help gather more intelligence and better support victims, says M&S chairman Archie Norman.
  • 9 July: Australian flag carrier begins notifying millions of individuals after a cyber attack on a call centre, confirming that while financial and passport details are safe, a significant volume of other personal information was compromised.
  • 10 July: Police have made four arrests in connection with a trio of cyber attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.
  • 14 July: French luxury goods retailer LVMH has disclosed multiple cyber attacks in 2025 so far, and their impact is now spreading to the UK as a new incident affecting Louis Vuitton comes to light.
  • 16 July: Microsoft warns users over notable evolutions in Scattered Spider's attack playbook, and beefs up some of the defensive capabilities it offers to customers in response.
  • 16 July: Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq has revealed that all the personal data of all 6.5 million of its members was compromised in the April 2025 cyber attack on its systems.
  • 24 July: Cleaning products manufacturer Clorox fell victim to a Scattered Spider social engineering attack two years ago – it blames its IT helpdesk provider, Cognizant.
  • 30 July: CISA, the FBI, NCSC and others have clubbed together to update previous guidance on Scattered Spider's playbook, warning of new social engineering tactics and exploitation of legitimate tools, among other things.
  • 7 August: Air France - KLM alerts authorities of a data breach in which threat actors were able to get away with names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. (Dark Reading)
  • 7 August: ShinyHunters is back, with low-tech hacks that nonetheless manage to bring down international megaliths like Google, Cisco, and Adidas. (Dark Reading)
  • 11 August: Computer Weekly gets under the skin of an ongoing wave of ShinyHunters cyber attacks orchestrated via social engineering against Salesforce users.
  • 12 August: ReliaQuest researchers present new evidence that firms up a potential link, or outright partnership, between the ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider cyber gangs.
  • 18 August: A campaign of voice-based social engineering attacks targeting users of Salesforce’s services appears to have struck HR platform Workday.
  • 19 August: Millions of people are supposedly affected by a breach at Allianz Insurance arising via attacks on Salesforce (Dark Reading).
  • 2 September: Jaguar Land Rover reports a cyber attack has ‘severely disrupted’ its vehicle production and retail operations, recalling similar attacks on other prominent British brands this year.
  • 5 September: The recent cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover is keeping workers out of plants as possible attack group identity becomes public.
  • 9 September: Qantas executives are to take a pay cut in the wake of the recent cyber attack on the airline's systems (Dark Reading).
  • 10 September: Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover revealed that data was stolen in the cyber attack that began on 31 August, as its production line continues to be affected.
  • 12 September: M&S chief digital and technology officer Rachel Higham steps back from her role in the wake of the April 2025 cyber attack on the retailer’s systems.
  • 15 September: Kering, the parent group of fashion houses including Balenciaga and Gucci, becomes the latest organisation to allegedly fall victim to ShinyHunters.

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