Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack could be the costliest in UK history

• Cyber Monitoring Centre ranks JLR’s incident a level 3 (M&S was level 2)
• Wholesales were down 24.2% year-over-year, Jaguar undergoes transformation
• The attack cost an estimated £1.9 billion (with £1.5 billion from government loans)

The August 2025 hack of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is estimated to have cost £1.9 billion ($2.6 billion), an official report has said.

A Cyber Monitoring Centre report described the incident as “the most economically damaging cyber event to hit the UK,” ranking its effects more highly than those of the incident affecting M&S earlier in 2025.

Over 5,000 related organizations in the UK have been affected, including suppliers and dealerships, widening the breach’s impact.

JLR cyberattack effects

During the shutdown, which lasted around 5-6 weeks, JLR was losing an estimated £50 million per week. It later secured a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) government loan to support both its core operations and its suppliers.

Although systems are back up and running to a certain degree, it could take until early 2026 before JLR reaches a full state of recovery.

JLR’s factories in Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton were affected, impacting the company’s 1,000 daily car production output.

Apart from describing JLR’s attack as the “most economically damaging” event in UK history, the Cyber Monitoring Centre also categorized the breach as a level three incident, with five being the highest, suggesting potential future attacks could be even more damaging.

To put that in perspective, M&S, Co-op, and Harrods attacks earlier this year scored a level two, with total costs estimated at £270-440 million.

However, JLR has still not disclosed the type of attack it faced, or whether or not it paid a ransom (which is not included in the estimate above).

On October 7, JLR noted a 24.2% year-over-year decrease in wholesales. “It has been a challenging quarter for JLR. In the first two months our performance was robust and in line with our expectations,” CEO Adrian Mardell explained.

The cyber incident came just months after the company confirmed it would be winding down Jaguar sales as the brand undergoes a total reinvention.

“We know there is much more to do but our recovery is firmly underway,” Mardell added.

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