Jaguar Land Rover is still paralysed due to the cyber attack on 31 August

Production of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles remains paralysed for more than two weeks following a major hacking attack on 31 August, for which a group of teenagers called the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters claimed responsibility. Vehicle assembly is not expected to resume until 24 September at the earliest, with downtime costing the company millions of pounds every day.

Here's What We Know

JLR normally produces over a thousand cars a day, but conveyor belts have been standing idle since the attack. The company has shut down its IT systems to protect against further damage, bringing automated assembly lines to a halt. Experts estimate losses to be as high as £5-10m ($6.8-13.6m) a day.

JLR's small and medium-sized suppliers were particularly vulnerable. Former head of Aston Martin Andy Palmer believes that some of them will be on the verge of bankruptcy. One of the suppliers has announced that almost half of its staff will be made redundant.

The situation has caused concern to the British authorities. Liam Byrne MP, head of the Parliamentary Business and Trade Committee, warned of the risks of a "chain reaction" in the economy and called on the government to intervene. Trade union Unite has also called for a system of temporary payments to be introduced to save jobs in the JLR supply chain.

According to the investigation, the attack was carried out through a vulnerability in SAP software to introduce ransomware. Following the cyberattack, hackers from Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters mocked the British intelligence services and the cyber security natsagency on Telegram.

Sources: BBC, The Telegraph