M&S hackers ‘claim to be behind Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack’

A group of young hackers who targeted Marks and Spencer and other British brands have reportedly claimed they were also behind a major cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

The BBC reported on Wednesday that the gang has bragged about the hack on instant messaging platform Telegram and shared screenshots purporting to be from the car manufacturer’s internal IT system.

It comes after a spate of cyber attacks across the UK retail sector earlier this year, with M&S, the Co-op and Harrods among those worst affected.

The gang made the claims on a Telegram channel which is called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, a combination of three English language speaking, hacking groups known as Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.

According to the BBC, in private text conversations one of the criminals, who says they are the spokesperson for the group, claimed they are trying to extort money from the car manufacturer.

The hacker would not confirm if they had managed to steal private data from JLR or installed malicious software on to the company’s network, the BBC said.

Scattered Spider has been blamed for the attacks on British retailers earlier this year, after which M&S stopped online sales for around six weeks and warned that the incident could cost it around £300m.

Four young people were arrested for their suspected involvement in the April attacks and have been subsequently bailed.

A spokesperson for JLR said on Wednesday: “We are aware of the claims relating to the recent cyber incident and we are continuing to actively investigate.”

The Liverpool Echo reported that workers at JLR’s Halewood plant in Merseyside were told early on Monday morning not to come in to work due to the issue.

The car manufacturer said earlier in the week its production and sales were “severely disrupted” following the cyber attack.

A spokeswoman for the National Crime Agency said: “We are aware of an incident impacting Jaguar Land Rover and are working with partners to better understand its impact.”