British automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is struggling to recover from the cyberattack that paralyzed its operations in the UK. The company slowly resumed some production activities this week at its plants, but no formal date has been announced for a full return to normal.
Cyberattack at the end of August
Recall that on August 31, JLR was the victim of a major cyberattack, severe enough in fact that it led executives to completely halt assembly activities.
Since then, the restart of operations has been a long time coming. The recent announcement of a partial restart, moreover, raises more questions than answers, particularly regarding the speed of the recovery and the real impacts on the British automotive sector's economy.
According to the latest information, production is first resuming at the Wolverhampton engine plant before being gradually relaunched at the group's other British factories.
A slow restart
It will still take several weeks for JLR to return to the pre-cyberattack production rate of about 1,000 vehicles per day. The other production sites in the UK will be "brought back to normal gradually," according to the BBC, without any specific timeline being provided by JLR's senior management.
The impact of the incident also extends beyond national borders. The manufacturer's operations in China, India and Slovakia have also been disrupted, increasing the pressure on the company's global supply chain.
According to authorities, the attack was claimed by a group called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, which did not hesitate to taunt British security services following the incident.
A costly shutdown
According to some experts, JLR has lost an estimated £50 million (approximately $67 million USD) per week over the past five weeks - a colossal loss of revenue that weakens the entire British automotive ecosystem.
The UK government has had to intervene by guaranteeing a loan of £1.5 billion (approximately $2 billion USD) intended to support JLR-linked suppliers, some of whom had to cease all activity. The employees of these subcontractors were partially laid off, receiving only 80 percent of their usual salary.
JLR has indicated that the restart will occur in several phases, and is for the moment choosing not to provide any firm timelines, notably due to “false starts” observed in the process of restoring operations in recent weeks. The cautious approach reflects the scale of the challenges to be overcome.
More than 200,000 direct and indirect workers now depend on the full restart of JLR's activities, proving that the impact of the crisis extends far beyond the company's walls.