The recent Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) attack is costing around £50 million a week, while Marks & Spencer (M&S) faced losses of over £300 million after a similar incident. These examples show why two types of insurance are vital. Cyber Insurance can cover the direct costs of an attack, while Trade Credit Insurance protects suppliers when customers cannot pay because their operations are disrupted. Together, they help businesses and supply chains stay resilient during cyber crises.
The cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) that began on August 31, 2025, serves as yet another stark reminder of how vulnerable modern manufacturing and its supply chain can be to cyber threats.
Production lines have remained shut for nearly a month, with the company extending the suspension until at least October 1, 2025. The attack, claimed by “Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters” – the same group behind earlier attacks on Marks & Spencer – compromised JLR’s IT infrastructure so severely that the company had to power down systems across its global operations.
JLR operates three factories in Britain producing around 1,000 cars per day, but the shutdown is costing the company an estimated £50 million ($68 million) per week, with 33,000 staff told to stay at home. The attack didn’t just target JLR’s production systems; it compromised the very infrastructure that connects manufacturers to their supply networks.
How Cyber Insurance Could Have Protected JLR
The financial impact facing JLR has significantly increased , after it was reported in public news outlets that the company failed to secure cyber insurance before the incident struck.
According to multiple sources, JLR had been negotiating a policy through a London based broker but had not finalised the deal, leaving the company without direct cover for what has become one of the most disruptive cyber events to hit the U.K. manufacturing sector.
Without insurance to absorb business interruption losses, JLR is shouldering the full weight of the shutdown costs. A comprehensive cyber insurance policy could have provided:
- Business interruption cover to offset the £50 million weekly losses
- Extra expense coverage for incident response, forensic investigation, and system restoration costs
- Crisis management support including PR and communications expertise
- Cyber extortion coverage if ransomware demands were involved
- Third-party liability protection against potential supplier and customer claims
As one industry expert noted, “the failure to complete a cyber insurance placement can leave even a blue-chip manufacturer dangerously exposed. In an era when criminal groups target operational technology with growing sophistication, gaps in cover are not just financial missteps they are existential vulnerabilities.”
Beyond Direct Costs: The Supply Chain Impact
The JLR cyber event demonstrates that the costs and business interruption for the primary target are only part of the story. The significant challenge lies in knock-on impact across the supply chain. JLR’s production supports 104,000 jobs in supply chains across the country.
Suppliers have been warned the shutdown could stretch into November. Industry sources estimate that around 25% of suppliers have already taken steps to pause production and lay off workers, with one smaller JLR supplier already laying off 40 people – nearly half of its workforce – while another major supplier in the West Midlands has told “hundreds” of staff to stay home
As industry expert Bailey noted: “There’s anywhere up to a quarter of a million people in the supply chain for Jaguar Land Rover. If there’s a knock-on effect from this closure, we could see companies going under and jobs being lost.”
For many suppliers, JLR represents their biggest customer or certainly one of their largest. A prolonged period without new orders creates an immediate cashflow crisis that may be unaffordable for smaller businesses. While JLR will eventually resume orders and payments, the critical question remains: can suppliers survive the wait?
The larger suppliers will likely weather this storm, but smaller suppliers face a genuine test of survival. The knock-on effects extend even further to second and third-tier suppliers who may have already purchased materials for new orders, made advance payments to their own suppliers, and have works well in progress.
When first-tier suppliers fail, this creates a cascade of unpaid works and unfulfilled orders – many of which are bespoke and cannot be resold elsewhere. This really emphasises where the true risk of Credit exposure lies, not with a company’s own aged debt management but an incident, whether insured or not, affecting a clients’/suppliers’ ability to continue the flow of cash.
Trade Credit Insurance: The Supply Chain Safety Net
This is precisely where Trade Credit Insurance becomes invaluable. Trade Credit Insurance is a business protection product that covers companies against the risk of customers failing to pay their debts due to insolvency, bankruptcy, or protracted default. Unlike traditional debt collection, trade credit insurance provides immediate financial compensation when customers cannot pay, helping businesses maintain cashflow during critical periods.
Key features of Trade Credit Insurance include:
- Bad debt protection - Coverage for unpaid invoices when customers become insolvent
- Work in progress coverage - Protection for partially completed orders and services
- Advanced payment protection - Coverage for deposits and advance payments made to suppliers
- Credit management services - Ongoing monitoring of customer financial health
- Collection services - Professional debt recovery support
In the JLR scenario, suppliers with Trade Credit Insurance policies may have the financial protection they need to weather the impact of the shutdown. Rather than facing immediate cashflow crises, they may claim under their policies to maintain operations and protect jobs.
How Trade Credit Insurance Provides Protection and Peace of Mind
For JLR’s suppliers facing this crisis, Trade Credit Insurance would have provided crucial financial breathing room. Cover typically extends beyond simple bad debt protection to include:
- Works in progress - Protecting the value of partially completed orders that cannot be delivered
- Advanced payments - Recovering deposits paid to sub-contractors and material suppliers
- Pre-delivery coverage - Protection for goods manufactured but not yet delivered
- Credit limit flexibility - Ability to adjust coverage as business relationships evolve
The peace of mind factor cannot be overstated. Suppliers with trade credit cover can focus on managing their operations and supporting their workforce rather than desperately chasing emergency funding or making difficult decisions about redundancies. This protection helps maintain the integrity of the entire supply chain ecosystem.
Beyond Manufacturing: Cross-Industry Cyber Supply Chain Risks
The vulnerability demonstrated by the JLR attack extends far beyond automotive manufacturing.
- Healthcare Sector: A cyberattack on a major pharmaceutical distributor could halt medication deliveries to hospitals and pharmacies. Healthcare providers with trade credit insurance could protect against unpaid invoices if medical suppliers face financial challenges due to the disruption.
- Retail Industry: The recent Marks & Spencer attack, which cost the retailer £300 million and disrupted operations for months, created similar ripple effects. Fashion suppliers, logistics providers, and seasonal manufacturers faced cancelled orders and payment delays. Trade credit insurance could have provided crucial cashflow protection during the recovery period.
- Food and Agriculture: A cyberattack on a major food processing facility could disrupt the entire food supply chain. Farmers, packaging suppliers, and logistics companies would face immediate cashflow pressures. Trade credit cover could help agricultural suppliers maintain operations while the primary processor recovers.
- Technology Sector: When cloud service providers or software companies face cyber incidents, their clients may struggle with business continuity. IT consultants, software vendors, and support services providers could find themselves with significant unpaid invoices if client businesses fail due to the disruption.
- Construction Industry: A cyberattack on a major construction firm could halt multiple projects simultaneously. Subcontractors, material suppliers, and equipment rental companies would face immediate payment risks, particularly given the project-based nature of construction work where trade credit insurance becomes essential for cashflow protection.
The Growing Threat Landscape
The automotive industry faces particular vulnerability due to its tightly integrated manufacturing execution systems, logistics platforms, and supplier portals. Disruption in any of these can halt assembly lines, even without direct compromise of operational technology environments. This interconnectedness means that cyber events create systemic risks that traditional risk management approaches struggle to address.
With over 700,000 UK businesses categorised as being in significant or critical financial distress, the landscape for supply chain disruption has never been more precarious.
The ever-growing risk of Cyber events add an unpredictable accelerant to an already volatile business environment and serious consideration needs to be given to insuring own cyber risks and insuring the risks of supply chains not covering themselves, by way of protecting against their ability to continue payment should anything disturb their business.
The Insurance Protection Gap
The JLR incident highlights a critical gap in risk management thinking. Despite growing awareness of cyber risks among businesses, adoption of cyber insurance remains far from universal, with underinsurance remaining a key challenge.
Similarly, trade credit insurance penetration remains low among SMEs, leaving supply chains vulnerable to cascading failures.
A full gap analysis is required to understand the insurance needs of the business. In the scenario of the JLR cyberattack and it’s supply chain knock on effect, a protection approach of combining cyber insurance with trade credit insurance creates comprehensive protection:
- Cyber insurance protects against direct attack costs and business interruption
- Trade credit insurance protects against the secondary effects when customers/suppliers are impacted by cyber events
The combination of comprehensive cyber insurance and trade credit insurance provides robust protection against both direct and indirect cyber risks. These products work together to:
- Protect your business operations during cyber incidents
- Maintain cashflow when customers face cyber-related financial distress
- Preserve supplier relationships during recovery periods
- Support business continuity across your entire supply chain ecosystem
The cost of going without cover, as JLR has discovered, can be exponentially higher than the premium investment. In an era where cyber criminals target operational technology with growing sophistication, comprehensive insurance cover isn’t just good practice, it’s essential for business survival.
Ready to protect your business and supply chain? Contact Alan Body in the Jensten Transactional Risks team to discuss how Trade Credit Insurance and Cyber Insurance can provide comprehensive protection for your business operations and supply chain relationships. Don’t let your business become the next cautionary tale in an increasingly dangerous cyber landscape.
