JLR to restart production today following September hack

“I would like to thank everyone connected to JLR for their commitment, hard work and endeavour in recent weeks to bring us to this moment. We know there is much more to do but our recovery is firmly under way.”​

The cyber attack on 1 September brought all factories to a halt and incapacitated JLR, forcing it to shut down its internal computer systems in an effort to protect data from being stolen.

This resulted in production shutdowns at all of its global plants, created issues with parts ordering and stifled retailers.

The impact on volumes will be made clear when the company releases its production numbers for the quarter, but in the three months to the end of September last year, it produced more than 80,000 cars.

The effect could be costing JLR up to £5 million a day, business economics professor David Bailey has told Autocar.

Government to underwrite £1.5bn JLR loan

The restart announcement comes after the UK government said it will guarantee a £1.5 billion loan to JLR, to help it support suppliers who have been hit by the production shutdown.

The loan to the Tata-owned car maker will be issued by a commercial bank but will be underwritten by the UK government.

As well as costing JLR an estimated £50 million a week, the cyber attack has badly hit JLR's suppliers. 

It's estimated that around 150,000 people are employed by some 700 British firms that supply JLR, and the UK government had been investigating ways to support them, such as a furlough scheme or loans.

It will instead underwrite a single loan to JLR through the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), with JLR repaying the money over a period of five years. 

Business secretary Peter Kyle said on 27 September that the loan guarantee "will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves added that the loan would help JLR "support their supply chain and protect a vital part of the British car industry".

Since the attack, JLR has been able to restore some of its IT systems following the and has started paying some of its suppliers.

JLR hack: what happened?

Autocar first reported issues affecting JLR on 1 September, when dealers couldn't register new cars on 'new plate day', traditionally one of the year's busiest for registrations.

In an effort to combat the hack, JLR began “shutting down" its systems on 2 September. It has not produced any cars globally since, leading to millions of pounds of lost income.

The extent of the issues meant JLR brought police and cybersecurity experts in to “restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner”.

During this process, which included an investigation, it was discovered that "some data" was "affected", according to JLR. Those affected will be contacted, the firm said.

It's not officially known what data was taken or if a ransom demand has been made, but it is thought it most likely involves customer data, given the involvement of the police.