Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Britain’s largest carmaker, has been forced to suspend vehicle production following a major cyber attack that has crippled parts of its global operations.
The company, which builds the Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery models, confirmed Tuesday that the attack disrupted its factories, showrooms, and service centers.
To prevent further damage, JLR deliberately shut down critical computer systems, halting production at least at its Halewood plant in Merseyside. Workers there were instructed to stay home.
So far, JLR has said there is no evidence that customer data has been compromised. However, the company admitted the incident has “severely disrupted” business, adding that it is attempting to bring systems back online in stages.
The attack comes at a difficult time for the company. JLR has already been under pressure in recent months due to tariffs on vehicle exports, squeezing its global competitiveness.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the Merseyside facility has been fully shut down. It is unclear if JLR’s other plants, including sites in the Midlands, Slovakia, Austria, China, India, and Brazil, have also been affected.
In a statement, a company spokesperson said:
“JLR has been impacted by a cyber incident. We took immediate action to mitigate its impact by proactively shutting down our systems. We are now working at pace to restart our global applications in a controlled manner. At this stage, there is no evidence any customer data has been stolen but our retail and production activities have been severely disrupted.”
Reports also indicate that the carmaker has been unable to register new vehicles during what is typically one of the busiest sales periods of the year.
Tata Motors, JLR’s Indian parent company, disclosed the disruption to the stock exchange in Mumbai, describing it as a global “IT incidence.” The company pledged to provide further updates once more information is available.
