In Solihullnear Liverpool and in its plant in Slovakia, it is usual to see how every minute some of the vehicles that mark the top of the British industry leave the line. Today those chains are still, and not due to lack of pieces or demand. A computer attack He has forced To Jaguar Land Rover to stop the production and to review its systems with magnifying glass. The image is not just that of some detained factories, it is that of a sector that discovers how vulnerable it can become.
Chronology helps dimension the magnitude of the case. On August 31, Jaguar Land Rover arrested operations in his British factories as a preventive measure, According to Financial Times. Days later, the company reported that the restoration of the systems would require more time than expected, with October 1 as a new horizon. The aforementioned medium, however, points out that the interruption could be extended for several months, leaving the production chains on the air.
What do we know about the attack. The first thing that confirmedThe company was that their systems had been compromised and that some data were affected, although it pointed out that there was no evidence of theft of customer information. In parallel, a Telegram channel spread messages attributed to Lapsus $, Shinyhunters and Scatrtred Spider, with screenshots and the statement of having accessed the company’s source code. However, this type of displays should be taken cautiously.
Specialists cited by The Wall Street Journal They estimate that each day without production is about seven million dollars in sales not made. The company has chosen to continue paying its workers despite the fact that the plants remain closed, a measure that mitigates work voltage but increases financial pressure. The result is an invoice that grows day by day, even before evaluating the technical damage of the attack.
Domino effect. Beyond the factories, the crisis is transmitted to the workshops and suppliers that supply Jaguar Land Rover. Some 100,000 people work in that gear that delivers pieces to the exact rhythm required by the assembly line. Every day without production complicates the treasury of small and medium enterprises, which depend almost exclusively on keeping the connection with the JLR plants open.
Safe against cyber attacks. According to Reutersthe company did not close a policy to cover losses and costs derived from a computer attack. It was being intermediate by Lockton, a global insurance broker. This suggests that JLR was without specific coverage when the incident occurred.
The British government has been dragged into the crisis. Two ministers held meetings in JLR to analyze how to reactivate production. In parallel, the Executive considers an unusual plan: to acquire pieces of suppliers to support their treasury and place them in the market when production starts again. The sector, however, questions how to decide what to buy and where to store the components, which leaves the proposal in an exploratory phase.
Will sales be lost? Despite the break, the company is not completely unfit. The aforementioned American newspaper indicated that their country’s dealers had an inventory equivalent to 113 days of sales, one of the highest levels in the sector. That mattress can absorb part of the commercial impact in the short term. The problem appears if unemployment extends until November, with losses of 3.5 billion pounds in revenues (about 4,009 million euros).
Jaguar Land Rover’s crisis is not limited to a manufacturer stopped by a computer attack. It exposes to what extent the modern automotive depends on digital systems that can become invisible until the day they fail. In a sector accustomed to measuring every second of production, a blockade like this not only paralyzes factories and suppliers, it also introduces a new variable in the equation, resilience against threats that no longer arrive from markets or road, but from a system.
Images | Loris Marie | Martin Katler
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