The recent cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover is keeping workers out of the plants as possible attack group identity becomes public
The recent cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover is keeping workers out of the plants as possible attack group identity becomes public
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has told its car workers to stay away from the assembly lines until at least Tuesday, as a possible culprit for the recent cyber attack upon it becomes public.
According to The BBC, production remains halted at car factories in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull in the West Midlands, as well as at its engine manufacturing centre in Wolverhampton.
The BBC also says the disruption extends beyond JLR, with its network of parts suppliers also forced to reduce operations. Some have complained of a lack of transparency from the company, according to the broadcaster.
A group of young Anglophone hackers who call themselves “Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters” have claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the BBC and other media outlets.
The group has boasted about the hack on Telegram, sharing screenshots seemingly taken from inside the carmaker’s IT networks. The same gang was responsible for a wave of cyber attacks this year on UK retailers including Marks and Spencer (M&S). The newly named group seems to consist of hackers who have been part of the groups Shiny Hunters, Lapsus$ and Scattered Spider.
Michael Reichstein, chief information security officer at cyber security firm Quontech, speculates on the possible mode of entry. “Given the alleged perpetrators (‘Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters’), the initial point of entry was almost certainly not a brute-force technical exploit against a firewall. These groups are masters of identity-based attacks and social engineering. Likely Scenarios include Phishing/Vishing; MFA Fatigue Attack; Credential Theft.
“The key takeaway is that the ‘way in’ was likely through a person, not just a piece of technology. The attackers targeted a legitimate identity and then used that access to move through the network.”
George Glass, associate managing director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Kroll, commented on the attack and its context: “As schools return to term time this September, it seems that cyber threat actors are also returning to business as usual.
“With groups such as Scattered Spider often comprised of teenage members, the summer is increasingly becoming a lull in cyber threat as hot weather and holidays distract. This year, arrests from the UK’s National Crime Agency are also likely to have put a dampener on the group’s activities.
“Phishing, social engineering and account compromise remain the most common routes of attack, while the size of targeted companies such as Harrods, M&S and Jaguar Land Rover show that no company is immune.
“The effects of a hack or data breach are table-stakes for businesses. Equally worrying, Scattered Spider and its contemporaries are also conducting personal attacks and even physical violence on key executives at their targets, a dangerous new dynamic for staff and businesses alike.”
Meanwhile, Jaguar Land Rover’s terse statement remains its only public comment.
“JLR has been impacted by a cyber incident,” it said. “We took immediate action to mitigate its impact by proactively shutting down our systems. We are now working at pace to restart our global applications in a controlled manner. At this stage, there is no evidence any customer data has been stolen, but our retail and production activities have been severely disrupted.”
A National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) spokesperson added: “We are working with Jaguar Land Rover to provide support in relation to an incident. All organisations are urged to make use of the NCSC’s free guidance, services and tools to help reduce the chances of a cyber attack and bolster their resilience in the face of online threats.”

Sometimes, a brief keynote is all it takes to redefine the smartphone industry.
It all started on January 9, 2007, when a visionary walked on stage to showcase his company’s latest invention. Some critics published unforgiving headlines at the time, and takeoff was far from guaranteed. Today, the device has become by far the most influential of its category, with many users considering it the gold standard. This success can be traced back to a series of transformations the iPhone has undergone over the past two decades.
After launching the iOS App Store in 2008, Apple continued to meaningfully elevate the iPhone experience. Each year, it debuted significant hardware and software changes, enticing users to switch or upgrade. iPhones were introduced at WWDC through 2010, when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 4. It was to be Jobs’ last time headlining any event.
From 2011, iPhones began to be introduced in the fall, starting with Tim Cook’s introduction of the iPhone 4s. Naturally, some features, enhancements, and announcements stood out more than others. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit the 10 most iconic iPhone event moments of the Tim Cook era.MagSafe (iPhone 12)
Arguably, MagSafe is the most recent impactful iPhone introduction. Launched in 2020, the feature ported the fan-favorite Mac charging technology to iPhone 12 models. Notably, it addressed Qi wireless charging’s most irritating flaw. Thanks to the embedded magnets, the charging coils now align perfectly, sparing users from needing to precisely position their iPhones on the mat.
MagSafe also doubles as a universal base for accessories, letting users attach all sorts of add-ons to their iPhones’ backs. You’ve got wallets, grips, power banks, kickstands, and much more. The impact of MagSafe has transcended the Apple ecosystem, with newer Android phones now adopting the comparable Qi2 standard to unlock similar perks.Pro camera system (iPhone 11)
A year earlier, Apple announced its first Pro-branded iPhone, featuring high-end specs for power users. The most distinguishing factor of the iPhone 11 Pro was (and continues to be) the triple-rear-lens setup, which unlocks advanced photography and videography tools. While it didn’t support RAW photography and LOG video recording like newer models do, 2019’s iPhone 11 Pro marked the beginning of a new chapter for Apple’s mobile camera. We’ve reached a point where Pro iPhones are now being used to shoot entire Apple keynotes.Face ID (iPhone X)
In 2017, Apple celebrated its smartphone’s tenth anniversary with the iPhone X. The device boasted a complete exterior overhaul, featuring an edge-to-edge OLED panel and a stainless steel frame. Notably, it retired Touch ID in favor of the more convenient and secure Face ID scanner. The TrueDepth camera powering Face ID then expanded to iPad Pro, and MacBooks could adopt it down the road. Gone are the days of trying to type in passwords when our fingers are too moist for the fingerprint sensor to recognize them.Moment of ‘courage’ (iPhone 7)
A year before that, Apple made yet another controversial change that continues to impact how we use our phones to this day. 2016’s iPhone 7 ditched the headphone jack, disrupting how users listen to music. To soften the blow, Apple bundled a relevant dongle with the iPhone 7 and offered the original AirPods as a premium alternative for those willing to spend more.
Apple’s Phil Schiller said it came down to one word: “courage.” He said Apple had “The courage to move on, and do something new that betters all of us.”
The company was soundly mocked at the time, but Android phone manufacturers followed suit, and the true wireless earbud market boomed. At this point, we’ve got multiple AirPods tiers with varying features and price points, along with a ton of third-party alternatives. Live Photos (iPhone 6s)
With the 2015 iPhone 6s launch, Apple announced a camera feature dubbed Live Photos. For those unfamiliar, the perk records 1.5 seconds of video before and after each photo you take. While the Camera app still outputs a regular still shot, if you tap and hold on it, the short video plays. This helps you remember the context of a moment and hear the voices or sounds captured at the time.
With Live Photos, you can also effortlessly create GIFs with multiple effects, as well as long-exposure images. Apps like Instagram support the feature too, letting you get more creative with the Stories you post. It’s one of those smaller additions that might seem like a gimmick at first (there’s a reason why the iPhone 11’s Slofies aren’t on this list), but Live Photos turned out to be a surprisingly useful feature iPhone users can’t live without.Apple Pay (iPhone 6)
During 2014’s iPhone 6 event, Apple Pay was announced as a revolutionary way to shop without your physical wallet. The feature utilizes the NFC chips embedded in recent iPhones and Apple Watches, letting you securely make contactless payments without carrying your bank card. I still silently acknowledge how futuristic the entire concept feels every time I bump my wrist into a card reader to pay.Go big or go home (iPhone 6)
Apple Pay wasn’t the sole significant announcement during 2014’s keynote. The iPhone 6 itself kickstarted the era of serious media consumption on iOS by stretching the screen from 4 inches to 4.7 inches. More importantly, it offered the first Plus iPhone variant, packing a 5.5-inch display. Plus iPhones then took a hiatus from 2018 to 2022, and Apple may be doing away with them again on September 9. Meet Apple Watch (iPhone 6)
That’s not all for the iPhone 6 event. There was one more thing. During the September 2014 keynote, the iPhone maker publicly demonstrated the Apple Watch for the first time. While the wearable’s direction has since changed, it’s become one of the best-selling smartwatches—and certainly the most popular. Thanks to the company’s deep ecosystem integrations, the Apple Watch’s utility extends beyond mere fitness tracking. You can answer phone calls, send texts, stream music, interact with iOS notifications, and do much more with the latest watchOS.Touch ID (iPhone 5s)
In the preceding iPhone event, Apple introduced Touch ID. 2013’s iPhone 5s was certainly not the first smartphone to embed a fingerprint sensor. Its execution, however, surpassed whatever unintuitive Frankensteining was happening on the other side. I recall when early Samsung Galaxy phones had you swipe vertically to authenticate. Touch ID, on the other hand, would work when gently resting your finger on its reader.Siri is born (iPhone 5)
Despite aging like milk, we can’t not mark the day Siri was born. On October 4, 2011, Apple launched the iPhone 4s, along with the infamous virtual assistant. While Siri is now considered the dumbest mainstream voice assistant, it used to shine back in the day. If Apple’s vision materializes, the assistant may become smarter and more conversational in the coming years.

Dog got out? Left your phone somewhere? Those can be automation triggers.
SwitchBot had a few AI-powered devices on display at IFA 2025; not just a furry little robot pet (I picked it up and it’s not cuddly). They included an E Ink AI art display, which generates AI art on demand, an AI tennis robot that you can “play” matches against, and a couple of robot vacuums. We’ll get to all of that, but the main thing that caught my eye was the SwitchBot AI Hub.
It’s not that the others aren’t interesting—of course they are—it’s that I love good, easy automation. The promise of the AI Hub is two-fold: it can access SwitchBot’s Vision Language Model (VLM)—such models can interpret visuals and text at the same time—enabling natural language prompts that you can use both for setting up automations and searching connected security camera footage for events they recorded to its internal storage. It only supports SwitchBot’s cameras for now, although the company says that could change later.
Some examples include asking the AI Hub, via the SwitchBot app, when you left your phone somewhere in your house or when your dog got out. You can also set it to trigger automations based on events it identifies, like alerting you that your dog escaped. As for that local storage, the AI Hub comes with 32GB, but that’s expandable up to 1TB using a microSD card slot on one side or one of the USB-C ports on the back.
Unfortunately, automations using the AI Hub will cost money as you’ll need a subscription to a cloud plan that the company will debut in October, according to a SwitchBot rep. They told me pricing is yet to be set. The AI Hub works with more than 100 devices and supports Matter if you have a Matter Bridge device. It can also connect to a display and show you the real-time streams from up to eight 2K-resolution SwitchBot cameras.
Now, about the AI art frames. These use E Ink Spectra 6 color displays, and at least under the bright lights of the IFA show floor, they’re very convincing as art prints. They come in 7.3-inch, 13.3-inch, and 31.5-inch sizes, last up to two years on a charge, and are compatible with Ikea frames, so you don’t need to just use the ones they come with.
As for what the display shows, it’s, well, AI art. That means you can describe art you’d like to see, using the SwitchBot app, and it will show it on the frames. You’re gonna be looking at art that’s an approximation of something a human created, which was very obvious when I saw the frames—both were clear simulacrums of Vincent van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear,” and “The Starry Night.” Neat, but personally, I’d be a lot more interested in paying a subscription to a service that just puts the actual paintings on my E Ink screen.
Finally, the Acemate Tennis Robot. It’s like a standard tennis ball-firing robot with a net for you to aim at, except it can roll around the court to catch your balls and simulate another player returning them by firing another ball at you. The company says this machine “uses dual 4K binocular cameras and advanced AI algorithms to track serves, returns, and rallies with centimeter-level accuracy.” It can predict where your ball is going and drive to it at up to 5 meters per second, responding within 0.15 seconds.
The demo space the company set up for this was… less than ideal. It was cramped and flanked by loose netting that kept catching on the Acemate’s wheels. But even in such an awkward environment, it did a surprisingly good job swinging around the court to try to catch the balls (sometimes even successfully!) that were batted at it by a human tennis demonstrator at the other end. When each ball reached it, another ball would fly out of the bottom almost immediately. It was convincing, and I could definitely see using this thing to practice if you have no friends to play with.
SwitchBot says the Acemate serves (pun not intended) as an AI tennis coach, capturing info about ball speed, spin, net clearance, and placement, then gives you feedback using the Acemate app for iOS and Android phones. The company even integrates the Apple Watch to compare biometrics data to statistics from matches played with the robot.
The Acemate can run for up to three hours at a time and holds 80 tennis balls. You can tweak how it plays, from setting up to 20 target zones to adjusting its spin and speed to suit your ability.
SwitchBot did not reveal pricing or availability for any of the products. I’ve asked the company, and we’ll update when we know more.