Jaguar-Land Rover have postponed the re-opening of their factories following a cyber attack last week.
The company, which hoped to begin a phased re-opening tomorrow including production at its Halewood site, will now return no sooner than October 1.
The closure comes after JLR detected the cyber attack stealing customer data weeks after insisting that there was ‘no evidence’ of data ever being compromised.
The closure, which halted production, is now beginning to severely impact the business with disruptions in UK dealerships and scaring customers with a lack of information surrounding personal details.
As well as these problems, they have affected the jobs of 33,000 people in the UK who work for JLR directly and the estimated 200,000 more who are employed by the hundreds of companies in the supply chain, according to Sky News.
JLR has released a statement on the incident, stating: ‘Our teams continue to work around the clock alongside cybersecurity specialists, the NCSC and law enforcement to ensure we restart in a safe and secure manner.’
They have recognised the difficult time for all those connected with JLR.
Unions have called on the Government for help by introducing a furlough-style scheme to protect their jobs, but with a £2.2bn profit last year, the pressure is on JLR to support their employees themselves.
Owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, the nature of the attack remains unknown, although some are theorising that it may be similar to attacks experienced by Marks and Spencer earlier in the year.
Ransomware attacks have affected airports, with experts claiming that these cyber criminals are progressively taking greater risks to get bigger pay offs by attacking high-profile targets.
With over four in ten business in the UK having reported some form of breach in the last 12 months, it is clear cybersecurity is an ever-increasing problem in modern-day Britain.
