UK watchdog raises concerns over Jaguar Land Rover's cyber bailout

The UK's Cyber Monitoring Centre has questioned whether Jaguar Land Rover should have received a £1.5 billion government loan guarantee following a massive cyberattack last year, The Register reports.

"I think the loan guarantee is an unfortunate precedent because the government intervened in a case-specific way... without clear criteria," said CMC Technical Committee Chair Ciaran Martin during a Royal United Services Institute event.

It comes after a year in which the JLR breach, estimated at up to £1.9 billion, formed part of the CMC's assessment of the financial implications of cyberattacks on the UK economy. The conversation brought to light the growing disparity between the economic harm caused by cyberattacks and what the insurance market can really bear.

The warning coincides with the Ministry of Defence's announcement on Friday that the British Army would replace its fleet of Land Rover vehicles with a modern successor after over 70 years of service.

The CMC also revealed that it is creating a white paper on the UK's vulnerability to cloud-related threats and has partnered with the Office for National Statistics on a post-incident business poll following widespread cyberattacks.

Written by

Kelley Damore Chief Content Officer CyberRisk Alliance

Kelley Damore is Chief Content Officer at CyberRisk Alliance, where she leads content strategy across the company’s digital brands, research, communities and live events serving CISOs and security practitioners. At CyberRisk Alliance, she is focused on delivering 365-day engagement, trusted journalism and actionable insights to help security leaders navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape.