Thousands of auto dealerships across the United States and Canada are experiencing disruptions to their businesses due to cyber attacks against a provider of critical software and data services used in auto retailing.
The provider, CDK Global, said it was targeted in two attacks on Wednesday, prompting the company to shut down its systems to prevent the loss of customer data and to allow testing and other measures to restore its services.
“We are evaluating the impact and providing regular updates to our customers,” CDK Global said in a statement. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to restore our services and return our retailers to normal operations as quickly as possible.”
CDK provides services to more than 15,000 stores. Its dealer management systems store customer records and automate much of the documentation and data involved in selling and maintaining cars and trucks.
Dealers said the disruption slowed sales and forced them to find alternative methods of producing titles, contracts, leases, registration cards and other forms that need to be delivered to customers, banks and state auto authorities.
“It's definitely annoying, no question,” said Brian Benstock, general manager and vice president of Paragon Honda in the New York borough of Queens. “But we are still open for business. We still sell cars.”
He said his franchise had other systems in place to retrieve customer data. “We can produce contracts,” she said. “For customers, it's pretty simple.”
The outage came at a critical time for dealers heading into the final two weekends of the month, typically a busy period for new car sales. Many are also preparing for Fourth of July sales and other summer promotions.
Dealers said they were in some cases returning to writing contracts by hand or asking customers to wait a few days to take delivery of their vehicles.
They have less leeway in vehicle maintenance or repairs, when customers often expect their car to be returned within a few hours, but the lack of access to customer data in most cases does not prevent technicians from carrying out the repair work.