Jaguar Land Rover extends production pause for another week after cyber attack

Jaguar Land Rover’s production pause has been extended until next Wednesday as the carmaker’s efforts to recover from a crippling cyber attack continue.

The company has told staff, suppliers and partners that the factory shutdown will continue until September 24.

“We have taken this decision as our forensic investigation of the cyber incident continues, and as we consider the different stages of the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time,” a JLR spokesman said.

“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this incident is causing and we will continue to update as the investigation progresses.”

JLR was forced to pause production at the beginning of the month at its factories in Halewood, on Merseyside, and Solihull in the West Midlands, and its engine manufacturing site in Wolverhampton.

It followed a major cyber attack that affected its global operations and forced the UK manufacturer to shut down its systems on August 31.

Staff have been told not to return to work while production lines remain affected.

JLR has said it was “working around the clock” to get things running again, including bringing in cyber security specialists and introducing workarounds to keep activity going.

However, the cost of the prolonged period of disruption is likely to be building for the manufacturer, which is thought to usually build about 1,000 cars a day.

Meanwhile, it said it believed “some data” had been accessed in the hack although it did not specify who has been affected, such as customers or staff.

The company said it was contacting people if it found their data had been affected.

Trade union Unite has warned that thousands of workers in JLR’s supply chain are at risk of losing their livelihoods as a result of the production freeze.

It called on the Government to introduce a furlough scheme to secure people’s jobs while work to recover its operations continues.

It said that those directly employed by JLR were not at risk of losing their jobs.