US car dealerships halt services after cyberattack

(Bloomberg) — Thousands of auto dealerships were paralyzed Wednesday during a normally busy holiday season due to a cyber incident at CDK Global, a major provider of software to dealerships across the United States.

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The company shut down all systems, conducted extensive testing and consulted with external third-party experts, Tony Macrito, a CDK spokesman, said in an email. The company's core product, a dealer management system, and its digital retail solutions have been restored, and CDK is testing all other applications and will provide updates as they come back online , Macrito said.

The CDK systems, which many auto dealerships depend on to conduct almost all of their normal operations, first failed around 2 a.m. Eastern Time, said Brad Holton, vice-president. president of Proton, a cybersecurity company serving dealerships and the automotive industry.

He said CDK provided little information about the causes of the outage that led to the closure of many dealerships. Some were unable to operate at all and others were forced to resort to paper record keeping for routine services like oil changes, Holton said.

A BMW store in Manhattan told customers it was forced to suspend all new business, including booking appointments or servicing cars. When asked how long its operations might be disrupted, a store customer service representative responded, “I really have no idea.

Other dealers have also struggled to do business. We cannot access client files, we cannot schedule certain appointments. We can't even print a repair order, said Claire Glassmire, a receptionist at Barberas Autoland in Philadelphia. Employees used workarounds all day, Glassmire said, adding that our hands were all tied.

Protons Holton said some CDK functions began coming back online Wednesday afternoon, but others remained unavailable and the restored services were not fully operational.

A Toyota Motor Corp. spokesperson said the issue had been resolved and there was virtually no impact on the Japanese automakers' dealership network. Subaru Corp. said no impacts had been reported.

Dealers are very committed to protecting their customers' information, said Mike Stanton, president and CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association, adding that they are seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so that you can react appropriately.

The story continues

CDK provides dealers with services including online appointment scheduling, electronic signature capabilities and cross-divisional messaging tools, according to its website.

Investment firm Brookfield Business Partners has agreed to buy CDK in an all-cash deal worth $6.4 billion in April 2022.

–With help from Henry Seltzer and Tsuyoshi Inajima.

(Updates with comments from Toyota, Subaru.)

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