Catastrophic Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack to cost UK economy at least $2.5 billion, according to estimates — 5,000 independent organizations decimated by supply chain fallout

A new report from cybersecurity body, the Cyber Monitoring Centre, has estimated that the recent hack of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the fallout that affected its entire supply chain of more than 5,000 independent organizations cost the UK economy as much as £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion), via Reuters. These are just the losses so far, too, with the potential for them to mount further if there were any unexpected delays in restoring production at the main manufacturing facilities.

Amidst a range of ransomware and social engineering attacks against major institutions in the UK over the past year, the Jaguar Land Rover breach was arguably the biggest and the worst. It shut down several manufacturing plants in the UK, as well as production facilities in Slovakia, China, India, and Brazil, as teenagers from ransomware groups locked down their entire global computing system.

At their peak, just the UK factories would produce around 1,000 cars per day. The hack took them offline entirely for six weeks, and the ramp-up back to pre-hack levels is still ongoing.

Although JLR itself was targeted, its supply chain of more than 5,000 organizations was also hit hard, with JLR being the largest customer for many of those companies. Without it, their businesses struggled, causing knock-on effects on local economies as employees weren't paid or let go, and in some cases, entire businesses shut down.

"This incident appears to be the most economically damaging cyber event to hit the UK, with the vast majority of the financial impact being due to the loss of manufacturing output at JLR and its suppliers," the report said. The financial loss estimates are based on scenario-based analysis and modelling, rather than operational data.

Other major hacks have targeted UK businesses in the past year. British supermarket chain Marks and Spencer was also targeted in a hack that caused it to lose around £300 million ($399 million). In a recent survey, some 90% of polled British universities claimed to have suffered breach attempts in the past year, and the vast majority of even secondary and primary schools also reported being targeted.

In July, a 158-year-old transport company was forced to shut down, laying off over 700 people after a ransomware attack crippled its computer system. Elsewhere in the world, Discord was hit in September, leading to millions of users losing personal information in the breach.

This new cybersecurity report on JLR also warned that the potential losses from this hack could continue, as the fallout to secondary and tertiary suppliers is felt in the coming months. JLR is set to release its annual earnings report in November, which will give a firmer grasp of just how bad the hack was.

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