JLR 's cyber crisis deepens, as it admits data was 'affected'

Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber crisis has deepened.

The is day ten of the production shutdown and now the company admits customer data has been accessed in the attack.

Last week, JLR indicated there was “no evidence any customer data has been stolen”

On Wednesday morning, the company has admitted the hack was worse than it first thought.

In a statement, A spokesperson for JLR said: “Since we became aware of the cyber incident, we have been working around the clock, alongside third-party cybersecurity specialists, to restart our global applications in a controlled and safe manner.

“As a result of our ongoing investigation, we now believe that some data has been affected and we are informing the relevant regulators. Our forensic investigation continues at pace and we will contact anyone as appropriate if we find that their data has been impacted.

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

JLR hasn’t said how many people are affected or what information was taken but the company says it has alerted regulators and will contact individuals if necessary. “JLR appears to have found that the attackers penetrated further than they originally thought,” Professor Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey told ITV News.

“Now they have the non-trivial task of checking every part of the network to ensure the attackers are no longer present and cannot get back in.”

Woodward warned that doing this “could take weeks” and even longer, if systems need to be rebuilt.The shutdown is already costing the carmaker money, but the bigger risk may be reputational – a premium brand whose wealthy customers now face the possibility of fraud and identity theft.