Scourge · August 31 2025

The Scourge of Jaguar Land Rover

Chronicle

On Sunday 31 August 2025 a cyberattack forced Jaguar Land Rover to shut down its systems, and from 1 September car production stopped in the UK, Slovakia, Brazil and India. The shutdown began on the eve of the September number-plate change, one of the UK's busiest sales periods, and lasted for weeks, dragging many suppliers down with it. The UK government later guaranteed a £1.5 billion loan to support the supply chain.

Lesson learned

It showed that an attack on a major manufacturer spreads to thousands of businesses and workers along the supply chain, and that cyber resilience is also a matter of industrial policy.

Prayer of reparation

O demon of the assembly lines, who halted the lines of four countries, give the factories back their work and teach us to separate offices from the shop floor. Amen.

How it is remembered

Remembered with continuity plans that include suppliers, separation between office and production networks, and drills for restarting after a total shutdown.