Almost immediately after the cyberattack, a group on Telegram called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, claimed responsibility for the hack. The group name implies a potential collaboration between three loose hacking collectives— Scattered Spider, Lapsus$, and Shiny Hunters—that have been behind some of the most high-profile cyberattacks in recent years. They are often made up of young, English-speaking, cybercriminals who target major businesses.

Building vehicles is a hugely complex process. Hundreds of different companies provide parts, materials, electronics, and more to vehicle manufacturers, and these expansive supply chain networks often rely upon “just-in-time” manufacturing. That means they order parts and services to be delivered in the specific quantities that are needed and exactly when they need them—large stockpiles of parts are unlikely to be held by auto makers.

“The supplier networks that are supplying into these manufacturing plants, they’re all set up for efficiency—economic efficiency, and also logistic efficiency,” says Siraj Ahmed Shaikh, a professor in systems security at Swansea University. “There’s a very carefully orchestrated supply chain,” Shaikh adds, speaking about automotive manufacturing generally. “There’s a critical dependency for those suppliers supplying into this kind of an operation. As soon as there is a disruption at this kind of facility, then all the suppliers get affected.”

One company that makes glass sun roofs has started laying off workers, according to a report in the Telegraph. Meanwhile, another firm told the BBC it has laid off around 40 people so far. French automotive company OPmobility, which employs 38,000 people across 150 sites, told WIRED it is making some changes and monitoring the events. “OPmobility is reconfiguring its production at certain sites as a consequence of the shutdown of its production by one of its customers based in the United Kingdom and depending on the evolution of the situation,” a spokesperson for the firm says.

While it is unclear which specific JLR systems have been impacted by the hackers and what systems JLR took offline proactively, many were likely taken offline to stop the attack from getting worse. “It’s very challenging to ensure containment while you still have connections between various systems,” says Orla Cox, head of EMEA cybersecurity communications at FTI Consulting, which responds to cyberattacks and works on investigations. “Oftentimes as well, there will be dependencies on different systems: You take one down, then it means that it has a knock on effect on another.”

Whenever there’s a hack in any part of a supply chain—whether that is a manufacturer at the top of the pyramid or a firm further down the pipeline—digital connections between companies may be severed to stop attackers from spreading from one network to the next. Connections via VPNs or APIs may be stopped, Cox says. “Some may even take stronger measures such as blocking domains and IP addresses. Then things like email are no longer usable between the two organizations.”

The complexity of digital and physical supply chains, spanning across dozens of businesses and just-in-time production systems, means it is likely that bringing everything back online and up to full-working speed may take time. MacColl, the RUSI researcher, says cybersecurity issues often fail to be debated at the highest level of British politics—but adds this time could be different due to the scale of the disruption. “This incident has the potential to cut through because of the job losses and the fact that MPs in constituencies affected by this will be getting calls,” he says. That breakthrough has already begun.

Close to a small fishing port in southwestern Japan, the slim white turbines of the country’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm glimmer offshore, months before a key project in Tokyo’s green-energy strategy begins.

Still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels, Japan has declared offshore wind energy a “trump card” in its drive to make renewables its top power source by 2040, and reach carbon neutrality a decade later.

That’s despite rising project costs and fears over inadequate infrastructure to produce turbines en masse.

Floating turbines are particularly well suited to Japan as its deep coastal waters make fixing them to seabeds tricky, while the country is also prone to natural disasters.

“Floating structures are relatively stable even in the case of earthquakes or typhoons,” said Kei Ushigami, head of marine renewable energy for construction company Toda, a key player in the project.

The eight turbines—sitting five kilometers (three miles) off the coast of the Goto Islands in waters up to 140 meters deep—will officially start turning in January.

It’s hoped they’ll aid the archipelago in reaching ambitious new targets laid out this year that should see wind’s contribution to the energy mix soar to between 4% and 8% by 2040—up from around 1% today.

But it’s a long, hard road ahead for resource-scarce Japan—the world’s fifth-largest carbon dioxide emitter—to wean itself off fossil fuels.

In 2024, 65% of its electricity needs were met by coal and hydrocarbon-powered thermal plants, while just over a quarter came from renewables, according to Japan’s Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies.

Herculean task

Costs are also rising sharply, and at the end of August Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi pulled out of three key wind power projects deemed no longer profitable.

Other project operators have asked for better support from the government.

“It is important for the government to address shortcomings in the current bidding system, which failed to anticipate rapid global inflation after bids were awarded,” said Yoko Mulholland from the think tank E3G.

The streamlining of regulatory processes and easing construction restrictions would “shorten lead times and also lower capital expenditure”, she told AFP.

Hidenori Yonekura, from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, sees the nascent floating wind energy as a path to eventually lower costs, by installing more turbines in Japan’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone of 4.5 million square kilometers.

The task, however, appears Herculean: to meet the 2040 wind target, around 200 15-megawatt turbines a year need to go up.

But “the infrastructure is not yet in place”, warned Yonekura. “Japan lacks turbine manufacturers and large production sites.”

Fishers’ livelihoods

Construction companies also face technical challenges with these still-novel systems: defects discovered in the floating structure of a wind turbine at Goto meant Toda had to make replacements, delaying the project by two years.

Coexistence with local industries, especially fishing, is also crucial.

Toda said it had conducted an environmental assessment and found a pilot project had “no negative impact on fish”.

Fishermen also receive part of the revenue from electricity sales and some of the property taxes generated by the project, while some have been hired to monitor the construction site with their vessels.

But according to Takuya Eashiro, head of the Fukue fishing cooperative in Goto, the wind project was imposed “from the top” and presented as “a done deal”.

Nevertheless, “fishermen understand the importance of such a project for Japan”, he said.

The National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations protested to the government after Mitsubishi withdrew, reminding them that fishermen had worked with these projects, hoping for positive economic impacts.

As fishing becomes less viable owing to warming sea temperatures, “some hope their children or grandchildren will find jobs in wind turbine maintenance”, said Eashiro.

© 2025 AFP

A team of researchers at DTU may have cracked one of the toughest nuts in sustainable energy: how to make fuel cells light and powerful enough for aerospace applications.

An interdisciplinary collaboration between DTU Energy and DTU Construct has developed a radical redesign of the so-called solid oxide cells (or SOCs), using 3D printing and gyroid geometry. This intricate structure is mathematically optimized to improve surface area in a given volume and is employed both by engineers for heat exchangers and by nature in structures such as butterfly wings.

Gyroidal architecture is structurally robust, has a large surface area, and is lightweight. For the first time, DTU scientists have shown how to use the gyroid to make electrochemical conversion devices such as SOCs.

To power a commercial airplane today, you need jet fuel. If you retrofit a regular jet, replacing its 70 tons of fuel with Li-ion batteries of similar capacity, its weight would be 3,500 tons. And so it wouldn’t take off.

The same has been true for fuel cells, mostly confined to flat, heavy stacks that rely on metal parts for sealing and connectivity. So, those are heavy, too. Metal components make up more than 75% of a fuel cell system’s weight, severely limiting their mobility and consequently, their usefulness in, for example, aerospace applications.

Sustainable flight?

In a new paper published in Nature Energy, DTU scientists may have flipped the script. Professor Vincenzo Esposito from DTU Energy, Senior Researcher Venkata Karthik Nadimpalli from DTU Construct, and several colleagues from both departments have designed a new fuel cell that is fully ceramic and is built by 3D printing. The printed structure is known as a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) and is mathematically optimized for maximum surface and minimum weight.

Their fuel cell—they call it a Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cell or The Monolith for short—delivers more than one watt per gram. Not only is this a first, but it also broadens the field of possible fuel cell applications significantly, explains Nadimpalli, corresponding author of the study.

“Currently, using electricity-based energy conversion, such as batteries and fuel cells, doesn’t make sense for aerospace applications. But our new fuel cell design changes that. It’s the first to demonstrate the Watts to gram ratio—or specific power—needed for aerospace, while using a sustainable, green technology,” he says.

Extreme resilience

Fuel cells are nothing new, and their impact is evident in several sectors. While perhaps most visibly in hydrogen cars, they are, for example, also used as power supplies for hospitals and data centers, in ships, and as storage to stabilize renewable energy systems. Their ability to switch between power-generating and power-storing modes (electrolysis) makes them highly versatile in several applications.

There are many other reasons why the new fuel cells from the team of DTU scientists may be a game-changer. Apart from the weight being brought down significantly, the system allows gases to flow efficiently through the cell, improves heat distribution, and enhances mechanical stability. Switching to electrolysis mode, they produced hydrogen at nearly 10 times the rate of conventional designs.

“We also tested the system in extreme conditions, including temperature swings of 100°C, and repeatedly switched between fuel cell and electrolysis modes. The fuel cells held up impressively, showing no signs of structural failure or layers separating,” says Esposito, corresponding author.

The researchers explain that this kind of resilience is vital for space missions like NASA’s Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), which aims to produce oxygen from Mars’ carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere.

This mission currently relies on bulky stacks weighing more than 6 tons. The new design could deliver a similar performance at 800 kg, which would significantly lower the costs of launching the equipment up there.

What makes this design especially compelling is not only its performance but also how it’s made, explains Nadimpalli, “While conventional SOC stacks require dozens of manufacturing steps and rely on multiple materials that degrade over time, our monolithic ceramic design is produced in just five steps, where we eliminate the metal and avoid fragile seals.

“Still, I believe that we can improve the system further using thinner electrolytes, cheaper current collectors, like silver or nickel instead of platinum, and even more compact designs.”