JLR Cyber Attack: Announces ‘Phased Restart’ following Attack
Luxury car manufacturer JLR has recommenced some of its operations following the recent cyber attack. The company said today that it had begun a “controlled (and) phased restart” of parts of its “digital estate” while continuing to work with the Government and law enforcement on finding the source of the attack.
JLR, which is headquartered in Coventry, was forced to pause production at its UK plants across the West Midlands and on Merseyside and in Slovakia, Brazil, India and China following the cyber attack which shut down its systems on August 31.
The company, which makes the Jaguar, Range Rover and Land Rover brands, employs around 30,000 people and supports ten of thousands of other jobs in the supply chain, producing around 1,000 cars a day globally.
A statement issued by JLR said: “As part of the controlled, phased restart of our operations, today we have informed colleagues, suppliers and retail partners that sections of our digital estate are now up and running.
“The foundational work of our recovery programme is firmly under way. We have significantly increased IT processing capacity for invoicing (and) are now working to clear the backlog of payments to our suppliers as quickly as we can.”
“Our Global Parts Logistics Centre (in Leicestershire), which supplies the parts distribution centres for our retailer partners in the UK and around the world, is now returning to full operations.”
“This will enable our retail partners to continue to service our clients’ vehicles and keep our customers mobile.”
“The financial system we use to process the wholesales of vehicles has been brought back online and we are able to sell and register vehicles for our clients faster, delivering important cash flow.
“These are important initial steps as our dedicated teams work around the clock alongside cybersecurity specialists, the National Cyber Security Centre and law enforcement to ensure we restart in a safe and secure manner.”
“Our focus remains on supporting our customers, suppliers, colleagues and our retailers. We fully recognise this is a difficult time for all connected with JLR and we thank everyone for their continued support and patience.”
Business Secretary Peter Kyle and Industry minister Chris McDonald visited JLR on Tuesday to meet executives and also companies in its supply chain.
And yesterday demands for a furlough-style programme to assist affected workers intensified.
Last week, trade union Unite urged the Government to intervene and cover wages and on Wednesday the chair of the Business and Trade Committee endorsed those appeals.
Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, told the BBC: “There is a good, strong case for government intervention.
“You’ve got to recognise… (that) as the Chancellor said a couple of days ago, you have now got state-backed threats behind a lot of these cyber criminal groups, attacking firms like JLR.”
Byrne noted that the rise in state-sponsored cyber assaults had led to an expansion of “private ownership of what is in effect a public risk”, which proved challenging both to insure against and defend.