Jaguar Land Rover Cyber Attack Stalls Global Operations, Raising Questions Over Resilience

Jaguar Land Rover has been forced to halt production and scale back retail activity after a cyber attack struck its global operations, underlining the fragility of complex supply chains and the importance of robust risk management.

The luxury carmaker, owned by Tata Motors, said it had taken systems offline as soon as problems emerged and is attempting to restore production “at pace” and in a controlled sequence. Its Halewood plant in Merseyside was among the affected sites, with staff told not to report for work on Monday.

Although JLR stressed there was no current evidence of customer data being compromised, the scale of the disruption has been significant. For a business already contending with US tariffs and weak consumer demand, the episode represents a major operational setback.

The attack comes amid a wave of cybersecurity incidents across the UK retail sector, with Marks & Spencer losing six weeks of online sales earlier this year and projecting financial losses of up to £300 million.

For project managers, the situation illustrates the central role of contingency planning, clear escalation routes and cross-functional coordination. The controlled restart of JLR’s global applications is a reminder of how technology projects and operational recovery efforts overlap during crises.

Industry specialists warn that resilience planning should not be confined to IT teams. Leaders responsible for delivery and transformation programmes are increasingly expected to account for cyber risk, dependency mapping and scenario testing to safeguard deadlines and budgets.

As JLR moves through its recovery plan, the company’s handling of the crisis is likely to be closely studied as a case of business continuity in practice.