Jaguar Land Rover Cyber-attack Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Gavin Williamson
Main Page: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)Department Debates - View all Gavin Williamson's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Jaguar Land Rover Cyber-attack
Gavin Williamson Excerpts(1 day, 22 hours ago)
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Chris Bryant
Yes, I can assure my hon. Friend that we do that. Of course, I fully understand that this issue comes on top of other issues for JLR this year, not least tariffs in the United States of America. As my hon. Friend knows, the Prime Minister was very personally engaged in making sure that we got a better deal with the United States, and was able to announce that in a JLR factory. I know that some voluntary redundancies are going through the normal business process at JLR at the moment; that has nothing to do with this cyber-attack. However, I can give my hon. Friend the assurance he asks for.
Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)
Jaguar Land Rover is the largest employer in the west midlands, so every west midlands constituency is impacted by this cyber-attack. The attack on JLR is not the first of its kind, and it certainly will not be the last. Increasingly, we are seeing state actors using criminal gangs, whether they originate from Russia, North Korea or Iran, to get hard cash into their country. What more can the Minister and the state do to support our businesses with the robust defences that are required? They are fighting states, and they need this state right behind them.
Chris Bryant
They certainly have this state right behind them. Incidentally, I apologise to the right hon. Gentleman: I think I visited his constituency during the recess, and he might have known about it only 10 minutes before I arrived. We were looking at digital inclusion issues.
One thing that all businesses can do now is get a certificate for cyber-essentials, which is a programme that helps businesses to protect themselves better. I am very hesitant to jump to conclusions about overseas involvement in this situation at JLR, but of course the Government take very seriously the fact that there are undoubtedly foreign state actors who want to interfere in our businesses and, for that matter, in the way we do politics in this country. We need to keep our eyes wide open for that.