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Car dealerships in the USA and Canada faced significant disruption as cyber-criminals targeted CDK Global, a software provider serving over 15,000 locations. Lisa Finney, a CDK Global spokeswoman, confirmed the incidents, stating, "We are actively investigating a cyber-incident."
As a precaution, CDK shut down most systems, forcing dealerships to resort to manual processing, "Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible.’
CDK assured customers of efforts to reinstate services promptly, but the duration of the outage remained uncertain. Concerns grew as CDK reported a potential prolonged downtime, impacting dealerships' ability to conduct transactions efficiently.
"In partnership with third-party experts, we are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers. ‘We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.’'
The outage affected various operations, including sales, repairs, and inventory management, emphasizing the reliance of modern dealerships on digital systems. Some functionalities were temporarily restored, but a subsequent attack forced CDK to shut down systems again, prolonging the disruption.
The incident's ripple effects were felt across the industry, with major automakers like BMW, Kia, and Ford scrambling to support affected dealerships. Alternative processes were sought, but challenges persisted, hindering essential functions like vehicle registration and paperwork processing.
CDK's cybersecurity measures came under scrutiny, especially amid a surge in cyber threats targeting automotive businesses. A 2023 report showed the increasing risk, with dealerships holding vast amounts of sensitive customer data. Despite efforts to enhance security, many dealerships were found lacking in basic cyber protections, making them lucrative targets for hackers.
