At least 15,000 car dealerships across North America have been dealing with several-day disruptions after their software provider was hit with a cyberattack that shut down its systems.
CDK Global, a software company supplying technology for more than 15,000 car dealerships in the U.S. and Canada, is “actively investigating a cyber incident” and has shut down all of its systems out of caution, the company’s spokesperson told Associated Press last week.
The compare, which provides software that helps auto dealerships facilitate their day-to-day operations — such as vehicle sales, financing, insurance, and repairs — was hit with cyberattacks on Wednesday, reportedly resulting in an outage that impacted dealers’ operations.
This means that prospective car buyers may experience delays at their dealerships or vehicle orders needing to be written up by hand. It remains unclear whether all of CDK’s clients have been impacted, as well as when operations will be restored.
CDK added that it has “executed extensive testing” and consulted third-party experts.
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible,” the company spokesperson said.
On Friday morning, a recorded message heard on a CDK hotline provided updates for its customers, saying, “We do not have an estimated time frame for resolution, and therefore our dealer systems will not be available, likely for several days.”
The software company added that “bad actors” have contacted customers posing as members or affiliates of CDK in order to get access to their systems. CDK also warned people to be aware of phishing attempts.
Stellantis, Ford, and BMW told Associated Press that the CDK outage affected some of their dealerships, but that they have nonetheless been able to continue with sales.
A spokesperson for Stellantis said dealers have switched to manual procedures, some of which involve writing up orders by hand. A Ford spokesperson, meanwhile, noted that the outage may cause “some delays and inconveniences at some dealers and for some customers.”
National Automobile Dealers Association CEO Mike Stanton told Associated Press, “Dealers are very committed to protecting their customer information and are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately.”
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