Car Sales by Dealers in U.S. and Canada Disrupted in Cyberattacks

Thousands of auto dealers across the United States and Canada are suffering disruptions to their operations as a result of cyberattacks on a provider of critical software and data services used in auto retailing.

The provider, CDK Global, said it was targeted in two attacks last 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.

CDK Global said in a statement: “We are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers… We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.”

CDK provides services to more than 15,000 retail locations. Its dealer management systems store customer records and automate much of the paperwork and data involved in selling and servicing cars and trucks.

Dealers said the outage had slowed sales and forced them to find alternative methods to produce the titles, contracts, leases, registration cards and other forms that must be delivered to customers, banks and state motor vehicle authorities.

Dealers said that in some cases they were reverting to writing contracts by hand, or asking customers to wait a few days to take delivery of their vehicles.

- CyberBeat