When Cyber Risk Stalls Business: Lessons from Jaguar Land Rover’s Shutdown

A Jaguar Land Rover assembly line in Solihull, UK. In September 2025, a cyber attack forced the automaker to halt production, illustrating how cyber risks can bring even the largest enterprises

A Cyberattack That Stopped the Assembly Lines

In early September 2025, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) – Britain’s biggest car manufacturer – experienced every business leader’s nightmare. A major cyber attack struck overnight, and by the morning of September 1, JLR had to halt production across its three UK plants. Assembly lines went silent as 30,000 employees were essentially idled, told not to come to work. The ripple effects didn’t stop there: JLR’s vast supply chain, encompassing roughly 100,000 additional workers, was left in limbo without orders or pay. Some smaller suppliers, suddenly cut off from their primary customer, warned they were on the brink of collapse.

This was not a minor IT hiccup—it was a company-wide crisis. The luxury automaker’s highly automated production system was effectively paralyzed, forcing JLR to extend factory shutdowns week after week. What began as a malicious intrusion into the company’s systems quickly cascaded into a full-blown operational standstill. The British government even intervened with a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to support JLR and its suppliers, underscoring how critical the company’s operations are to the regional economy. For a business that ordinarily produces about 1,000 vehicles per day, the message was painfully clear: a cyber incident had thrown a wrench into the physical gears of manufacturing.

This stark scenario highlights a lesson that can no longer be ignored: cyber attacks aren’t just “technical issues” that inconvenience an IT department – they are enterprise-wide risks that can disrupt every facet of a modern business. JLR’s forced shutdown became a vivid example of how cyber risk translates into real-world consequences, from factory floor disruptions to financial losses and reputational damage.

The Real-World Impact: Millions Lost Each Week

For Jaguar Land Rover, the immediate financial impact of the cyberattack was staggering. With production halted, JLR was reportedly losing around £50 million per week in lost output.