Teen hacking spree costs Britain almost £1.5bn-akbannernews

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2025-09-13

Teen hacking spree costs Britain almost £1.5bn

Hacker working in a dark room — The cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover has been blamed on Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, which is a group of British and American teenagers – Moment RF

A cyber crime spree by a group of teenage hackers threatens to cost British business nearly £1.5bn.

The shutdown at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is dragging into its third week, which, according to estimates from industry experts, results in the manufacturer being unable to produce 1,000 vehicles per day at a cost of £72m in lost sales. Production at its plants has already been on hold for a fortnight.

About £1bn in value has “not produced over the last two weeks,” said Prof David Bailey, of Birmingham Business School.

“My guess is that they will recover a chunk of that if they can get things up and running soon.”

However, Prof Bailey added: “The longer this goes on, the less likely it is that JLR can recover lost output and the more likely the £72m revenue a day hit is effectively locked in.”

The cyber attack on JLR has been blamed on Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, a group of British and American teenagers who have also been tied to a spate of hacks on British retailers, including Marks & Spencer (M&S) and the Co-op.

M&S website with displayed update — The M&S website updated its website pausing orders when it also suffered an attack by Scattered Lapsus$ Hunter – Yui Mok/Yui Mok

Earlier this summer, the Cyber Monitoring Centre, a non-profit that monitors the impact of hacks, estimated the damage to the two retailers from the same gang could be as high as £440m.

The non-profit has a technical committee chaired by Ciaran Martin, the former head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is deeply involved in helping UK businesses recover from cyber incidents.

In addition, the hack on JLR risks having a ripple effect on hundreds of small businesses in its supply chain. About half of JLR’s 2,500 suppliers are based in the UK, suggesting a possible further financial hit running into the hundreds of millions of pounds. A source told The Telegraph this week that the shutdown could extend another fortnight, almost to the end of September.

On Friday, The Telegraph revealed that the Government is considering whether to step in with a rescue package to help JLR’s hundreds of beleaguered suppliers if the halt to manufacturing drags on.

The cyber attack by Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, which began on Aug 31, has left JLR’s systems crippled. It has also had knock-on effects throughout JLR’s supply chain. As many as 200,000 people in the UK work in businesses tied to the carmaker’s supply chain, while JLR employs about 39,000 people directly around the world.

Suppliers have been calling for measures similar to the Covid-era furlough scheme to help them avoid a financial crisis. Already, thousands of workers have been laid off or temporarily placed on leave.

JLR is a significant contributor to the UK economy. A study commissioned by the business found it was worth about £18bn to the UK in 2024, or about £1 in every £160 of UK GDP.