Boards should place cyber resilience above AI adoption

As reported, a cyber-attack has pushed Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) into a crisis that strikes at the heart of corporate resilience.

- SRINATH SRIDHARAN

The attack silenced production lines, leaving 33,000 employees idle, and threw its global supply chain into turmoil. The Tata-owned firm had been negotiating an insurance policy but had not secured it when the breach occurred. If the disruption ultimately costs £2 billion, as estimated, it will surpass JLR's profit after tax for 2025. As JLR generates nearly 70% of Tata Motors' consolidated revenue, the news took little time to reach the Indian stock market.

Cyberattacks are common across industries. What is striking about this case is that one of the world's top automakers, with global reach and deep resources, got so severely destabilized. If this is the vulnerability of a global brand, Indian companies with leaner buffers may be at greater risk.

Too many Indian boards still view cyber threats as operational details, delegated to the CIO or relegated to compliance reports.

Yet, it is an enterprise-level threat that could close factories, compromise financial systems, disrupt customer access and trigger regulatory penalties. In its most extreme form, it can drive a solvent company into insolvency. For company directors, cyber oversight is a part of their fiduciary duty, and neglecting it is the equivalent of ignoring any other foreseeable risk.

India has seen many similar episodes. Major firms in our pharma, IT services and automobile sectors have endured ransomware attacks that froze operations for weeks and inflicted losses running into hundreds of crores. These incidents did not always dominate the news, but their scale and cost are well understood within industry circles.