Thousands of auto dealerships across the United States and Canada are suffering business disruptions as a result of a cyberattack against a provider of critical software and data services used in the automotive retail industry.
Provider CDK Global said it was targeted in two separate attacks on Wednesday and had shut down its systems to prevent loss of customer data and to restore services with testing and other measures.
“We are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers,” CDK Global said in a statement. “We remain committed to resuming service and enabling our dealers to return to business as usual as quickly as possible.”
CDK serves more than 15,000 retail stores. Their dealer management system stores customer records and automates much of the paperwork and data associated with selling and servicing cars and trucks.
Dealers said the power outages have slowed sales and forced them to find alternative ways to complete documents such as title certificates, contracts, lease agreements and registration cards that they need to submit to customers, banks and state motor vehicle authorities.
“It's definitely an inconvenience,” said Brian Benstock, general manager and vice president of Paragon Honda in the Queens borough of New York City, “but we're still in business. We're still selling cars.”
He said the franchise has a separate system for capturing customer data. “We can also create contracts. It's very smooth for the customer.”
The disruption comes at a critical time for dealers, ahead of what are typically the last two weekends of the month for new-vehicle sales, with many also preparing for Independence Day sales and other summer promotions.
Dealers said they were in some cases reverting to handwritten contracts and asking customers to wait a few days for vehicle deliveries.
Customers often expect their cars back within a few hours, leaving them with less leeway to service or repair their vehicles, but in most cases not having access to customer data will not prevent technicians from carrying out repair work.