For prospective car buyers, that's meant delays at dealerships or vehicle orders written up by hand. There's no immediate end in sight, but CDK says it expects the restoration process to take “several days” to complete.
On Monday,
Here is what you need to know.
What is CDK Global?
CDK serves more than 15,000 retail locations across
What happened last week?
CDK experienced back-to-back cyberattacks on Wednesday. The company shut down all of its systems after the first attack out of an abundance of caution, according to spokesperson
“We have begun the restoration process," Finney said in an update over the weekend — noting that the company had launched an investigation into the “cyber incident” with third-party experts and notified law enforcement.
“Based on the information we have at this time, we anticipate that the process will take several days to complete, and in the interim we are continuing to actively engage with our customers and provide them with alternate ways to conduct business,” she added.
In messages to its customers, the company has also warned of “bad actors” posing as members or affiliates of CDK to try to obtain system access by contacting customers. It urged them to be cautious of any attempted phishing.
The incident bore all the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, in which targets are asked to pay a ransom to access encrypted files. But CDK declined to comment directly — neither confirming or denying if it had received a ransom demand.
“When you see an attack of this kind, it almost always ends up being a ransomware attack,”
Are impacted dealerships still selling cars?
Several major auto companies — including
In light of the ongoing situation, a spokesperson for
A
“The people who've been around longer — you know, guys who have maybe a little salt in their hair like me — we remember how to do it before the computers,” said
Although impacted Hawk Auto dealerships are still able to serve customers by “going back to the basics," Crane added that those working in administration are still “pulling out our hair." He notes that there are now stacks of paper awaiting processing — in place of orders that went through automatically on a computer overnight.
In regulatory filings,
Lithia said it activated cyber incident response procedures, which included “severing business service connections between the company’s systems and CDK’s." AutoNation said it also took steps to protect its systems and data, adding that all of its locations remain open “albeit with lower productivity," as many are served manually or through alternative processes.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF?
With many details of the cyberattacks still unclear, customer privacy is also at top of mind — especially with little known about what information may have been compromised this week.
If you've bought a car from a dealership that's used CDK software, cybersecurity security experts stress that it's important to assume your data may have been breached. That could potentially include “pretty sensitive information,” Steinhauer noted, like your social security number, employment history, income and current or former addresses.
Those impacted should monitor their credit — or even freeze their credit as an added layer of defense — and consider signing up for identify theft monitor insurance. You'll also want to be wary of any phishing attempts. It's best to make sure you have reliable contact information for a company by visiting their official website, for example, as scammers sometimes try to take advantage of news about data breaches to gain your trust through look-alike emails or phone calls.
Those are some best practices to keep in mind whether you're a victim of CDK's data breach or not, Steinhauer said. "Unfortunately, in this day and age, our data is a valuable target — and you have to make sure that you’re taking steps to protect it,” he said.
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