What’s happening with CDK Global? Update on cyber attacks that hit car dealerships

Operations at car dealerships across the country were halted on Wednesday after multiple “cyber incidents” against car dealership software provider CDK Global caused the company to shut down its systems.

CDK shut down its systems after two cyber incidents, which the company announced Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon, according to CDK spokeswoman Lisa Feeney. The company did not answer questions Fast company About exactly how many dealerships are affected by the closures, but CDK says on its website that it serves 15,000 auto dealerships across North America.

“Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working hard to get everything up and running as quickly as possible,” Finney said Wednesday morning after the first cyber incident.

CDK’s systems were shut down for the first time on Wednesday at around 2 a.m. ET, according to Bloomberg Quote Brad Holton, vice president of Proton, which specializes in cybersecurity for the automotive industry. CDK did not respond to questions about whether an individual or group was behind the cyber incidents, but said it is investigating the events and will provide updates to customers when its systems are restored.

Dealers across the United States rely on CDK software — which helps dealers manage tasks from sales to maintenance — in their daily operations. Customers relying on the CDK program include General Motors dealers and auto retailer Group 1 Automotive.

Is CDK Global backed up?

While the company was able to restore some of its core products after the first cyber incident, Finney wrote that most of its systems were still shut down as of Thursday afternoon.

The company initially shut down most of its systems Wednesday morning in response to the first cyber incident. However, a few hours later, the company announced that, “in an abundance of caution,” it had “proactively” expanded the shutdown to include all of its systems.

By the afternoon, CDK Global said it had restored its “core” product, the Dealer Management System — a software center that allows car dealerships to track all sales in one place. The company has also been able to get another category of its software tools up and running again which allows car dealers to conduct transactions online and in showrooms.

“We are continuing to conduct extensive testing on all other applications, and will provide updates when we bring these applications back online,” Feeney said. “Our first priority is always the security of our customers, and our actions reflect our commitment to them as a trusted partner.”

Despite the restoration, Finney announced Thursday that CDK Global suffered a second cyber incident late Wednesday evening. As a result, Finney said the company “proactively” shut down most of its systems again and was working with “external experts” to assess the impact of the cyber incident.

Finney did not provide a specific time on when CDK’s systems would be fully operational, but wrote that the company is working to “get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.”

Why do cyber attackers target car dealerships?

The cyber incidents affecting CDK come just one week after Findlay Auto Group, which operates dozens of dealerships in six states, Announce The recent cybersecurity issue affected its IT systems. She wrote in a statement on Facebook that the agent group was collaborating with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to investigate the issue.

Last year, I found the CDK in a file a report Cybercriminals’ methods of targeting car dealerships continue to evolve in an attempt to “steal” customer data, sometimes through sophisticated phishing schemes. In fact, the company found that more dealerships were hit by cyberattacks in 2023, writing that more than one in six auto dealers experienced a cyberattack or “incident” within the past year.

How are car dealerships handling closures?

Although system shutdowns have prevented many car dealerships from conducting their usual operations, some dealers have been improvising amid the service outages. In response to Reddit mail When asking users whose stores were running entirely on CDK software how they were dealing with the closures, one Reddit user wrote that they were using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Post-It Notes to track which parts they were distributing.