Last year, automotive giant Jaguar Land Rover, one of the UK’s biggest bosses, was subjected to a devastating cyber attack. As a result of this attack, production came to a halt for months, and there was a significant negative impact on the British economy.

The economic damage caused by the attack is estimated to be around 2.5 billion dollars. Faced with the seriousness of the situation, the British government decided to pay 1.5 billion pounds, equivalent to approximately 2 billion dollars, in order to save the company.

Names behind the attack

After months of uncertainty and speculation, new information shared by The New York Times reveals the story behind the incident. According to the news based on sources close to the investigation, it was determined that the group of hackers who infiltrated Jaguar Land Rover systems were of Russian origin.

It is not yet clear whether the hackers were working directly on behalf of Vladimir Putin’s government or whether they were independent hackers acting with the tacit approval of the government. Microsoft stated that it has been following the Russian hacker group in question for a long time and shared the identity information it obtained with the Jaguar Land Rover administration.

A multi-layered cybersecurity crisis

Valuable institutions such as the FBI, the UK National Crime Agency and the National Cyber ​​​​Security Center took part in the comprehensive investigation into the incident. In addition, the Mandiant unit within Google and Palo Alto Networks also provided technical support to the research.

In a rare case in the world of cybersecurity, it turned out that Russian hackers were not the only group that infiltrated Jaguar Land Rover networks. Investigations show that a Jordanian hacker using the pseudonym Rey also accessed the systems at the same time.

This multi-layered attack once again revealed how complex the cyber security vulnerabilities of large-scale companies can be.

What do you think about such a massive cyber attack targeting the automotive industry?