Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced that it was the target of a massive cyber attack on its systems that “severely disrupted” its retail and production activities in the United Kingdom.
The Tata Motors-owned group said it shut down its systems after becoming aware of the “global issues”, and stated that it was working “at an accelerated pace to restart operations in a controlled manner”, the company said in a statement.
JLR refused to provide further details about the cause of the incident and the scale of its impact, but a dealership said it was unable to register new cars using the company’s system this Tuesday.
It is worth noting that JLR is the latest victim in a series of cyber attacks on British companies that have occurred since the beginning of the year, particularly in the retail sector.
The incident occurred just a few weeks after JLR announced a significant reduction in quarterly profits due to tariffs imposed by the U.S. on vehicles imported from the United Kingdom.
The US agreed to reduce the 27.5% tariff on automobiles to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles shipped from the UK. However, the agreement only came into effect at the end of June, leading to a sharp decline in profits for the quarter from April to June.
Furthermore, Jaguar Land Rover has halted sales of new Jaguar models due to the brand’s restructuring and an aggressive shift towards fully electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
Last month, JLR appointed PB Balaji, chief financial officer of Tata Motors, as the new CEO, after Adrian Mardell, who held the position for the past three years, decided to retire.