Hack That’s Crippled Car Dealers Is In Process of Being Resolved
Vehicles for sale at a dealership in Richmond, California.
(Bloomberg) -- The hack that’s disrupted business at thousands of car dealerships in North America is now in the process of getting resolved, the targeted software provider CDK Global said.
The company has begun work to restore its systems that around 15,000 auto retailers use to conduct day-to-day business, according to an automated message shared with customers over the weekend. CDK expects the process to take “several days and not weeks,” the message said.
CDK is among a handful of companies that provides a suite of software tools that auto retailers use for various sales and service tasks. The company first shut its systems down on June 19, when it discovered an initial cyberattack. After briefly restoring some services, a second incident forced the company to shut back down later that day. CDK warned dealers last week that the disruption could last several days.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that the hackers were demanding tens of millions of dollars in payment, and that CDK was planning to send the funds.
CDK didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours on Sunday.
The service outage has slowed sales and repairs, as dealerships across North America have been forced to find workarounds for tasks ranging from scheduling appointments to running credit checks. Some dealers resorted to making deals using pen and paper. The shutdown has impacted business during what otherwise would be a busy US holiday and end-of-quarter period.
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