Car Dealership Management Software in US and Canada Hit by Cyberattack
TapTechNews, June 23 - The most commonly used car dealership management software in the US and Canada was hit by a cyberattack, resulting in more than 15,000 dealerships being unable to make sales in the past few days. It is said that the mastermind behind this cyberattack is demanding a huge ransom, amounting to tens of millions of US dollars.
According to Bloomberg, sources familiar with the matter revealed that since Wednesday, US and Canadian car dealers using CDKGlobal software have been facing service disruptions, preventing dealers from using the dealer management system (DMS) for normal operations such as selling cars, repairing vehicles, and delivering vehicles.
It's a complete mess right now, said DianaLee, CEO of the auto dealer marketing company Constellation, which works with many US dealers. All functions of the dealer, such as sales, service, parts, etc., require running the DMS, and even storing vehicle information cannot do without the DMS system, so this is a disastrous event.
CDKGlobal stated on Thursday that they expect the service to be disrupted for several days, although they had briefly resumed operation between the two cyberattacks on Thursday. Anonymous sources also disclosed that CDKGlobal is planning to pay the ransom. The source also said that the hacker is believed to be located in Eastern Europe, but the discussions on how to handle this situation are still ongoing and may change.
As the end of the second quarter approaches, this incident will also have a significant impact on the North American auto industry.
On Saturday, a CDKGlobal spokesperson told AutomotiveNews that there is currently no update on the event. Dealers said they haven't received an update from CDKGlobal, but many are still striving to operate as much as possible on what is usually the busiest sales day of the week.
TapTechNews noted that RobertSerrano, the general manager of NewCountry Toyota and several other dealerships in Westport, Connecticut, said that although they haven't received too many updates from CDKGlobal regarding this incident, the morale of his staff remains relatively high as they still plan to welcome a busy Saturday.
ToddEdwards, one of the owners of the EdwardsAutoGroup, a family-owned dealership group in Iowa, said he also expects Saturday to be busy, especially because the general public doesn't know what's going on. The employees of this dealership group also have to use pen and paper to fill out service tickets and plan to follow up with customers via email.