Jaguar Land Rover employees have been instructed to remain away from their workplace until at least Tuesday of next week as the automotive manufacturing giant continues to struggle with the aftermath of a massive global cyber incident.
It was revealed on Tuesday that the multinational group had been compelled to halt its manufacturing operations following a cyber assault.
The breach was reported on Monday, September 1, with manufacturing personnel telling the Liverpool Echo they had received correspondence at 4.30am instructing them not to report for duty at the company's Halewood site. A separate shift was sent home from the facility,
Personnel at JLR's manufacturing locations across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and internationally have remained suspended today as the firm continues to wrestle with the consequences of the breach. The ECHO that that the suspension will continue until at least next Tuesday.
A communication dispatched to employees at the Halewood site on Thursday afternoon stated: "Friday September 5 and Monday September 8. The leadership team has agreed that production associates will be stood down and will have hours banked in line with the corridor agreement.
"All colleagues are required to attend work as normal on Tuesday September 9 unless informed otherwise via email communications."
A collective of young hackers who previously targeted Marks and Spencer and other British companies in recent digital attacks have allegedly claimed responsibility for the JLR incident. that the criminal group has boasted about the breach on instant messaging platform Telegram and circulated screenshots allegedly from the car manufacturer's internal IT system.
This follows a series of cyber attacks targeting the º£½ÇÊÓƵ retail sector earlier this year, with M&S, the Co-op and Harrods amongst those most severely impacted.
The group made these assertions on a Telegram channel named Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, which represents a merger of three English-speaking hacking collectives known as Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.
The BBC reported that in private text exchanges, one of the perpetrators, claiming to be the group's spokesperson, stated they are attempting to extort funds from the automotive company.
A JLR spokesperson commented on Wednesday: "We are aware of the claims relating to the recent cyber incident and we are continuing to actively investigate."
A National Crime Agency spokeswoman remarked: "We are aware of an incident impacting Jaguar Land Rover and are working with partners to better understand its impact."
