Jaguar Land Rover confirms data theft after cyberattack

Jaguar Land Rover has officially admitted that some of its data was stolen in a major cyberattack, and thousands of employees are staying home for the third week due to the shutdown of production.

On August 31, the company suffered a serious cyberattack that forced the forced shutdown of IT systems and production processes. The work of enterprises in Halewood, Solihull and Wolverhampton was paralyzed, and tens of thousands of employees were sent on forced leave.

After initial statements that there was no information leak, on September 10 JLR confirmed the fact of data theft, although the volume and nature of the information are still unknown. The company said that affected customers or employees will be informed individually.

Experts warn: stolen files could have value on the darknet and be used for identity theft and targeted attacks.

• JLR, with annual revenue of £29 billion and more than 400,000 customers worldwide, has already been hit by hackers this year: in March, the attacker “fedboy” announced the theft of 700 internal documents containing personal employee data.

The latest attack is linked to a coalition of hacking groups called Scattered LAPSUS\$ hunters, who have previously attacked British retailers and other international companies. In parallel, similar incidents are taking place around the world, in particular the attack on Bridgestone Americas, which indicates a wave of large-scale targeted actions.

The cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover has become a serious challenge for the automotive giant, exposing the vulnerability of even multi-billion dollar companies. Experts emphasize that the focus of protection should shift from just preventing infections to counteracting data theft itself. If the leak is confirmed, the consequences could be felt by both employees and customers of the brand.