CDK Global, a company that provides software to auto dealerships across the U.S. to manage sales and other services, has been hacked, forcing the company to temporarily shut down most of its systems.
That effectively prevents about 15,000 car dealerships from making sales. General Motors dealerships rely on CDK's system, as does Group 1 Automotive, an auto retailer with hundreds of dealerships across the U.S. Holman, which has dealerships in eight U.S. states, is another CDK customer.
“We are actively investigating the cyber incident,” a CDK spokesperson told CBS News. “Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down the majority of our systems and are working diligently to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.”
Late Thursday afternoon, CDK said that after conducting tests and consulting with third-party experts, some of its systems were back in operation.
“With the work done so far, our main task [dealer management system] and digital retailing solutions have been restored. We are continuing to conduct extensive testing on all other applications, and will provide updates as we bring those applications back online,” CDK said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
The company's dealer management system, or DMS, is a hub that allows businesses to monitor operations from a single interface, while its retail tools allow dealerships to conduct transactions both online and in the showroom.
What is CDK?
CDK provides dealerships with tools to manage payroll, inventory and office operations.
On its website, it also touts its cybersecurity capabilities. It states, “CDK Cybersecurity Solutions provides a three-pronged cybersecurity strategy to prevent, protect against, and respond to cyberattacks so you can protect your dealership.”
When did the cyber attack start?
The cyberattack on CDK Global began Tuesday evening, causing its 15,000 car dealerships to go offline, cybersecurity news site Bleeping Computer reported Wednesday.
At present it is not known who or which group is behind the cyber attack.
How are dealerships responding?
Some dealerships appeared to be finding creative ways to keep business going during the outage. Dealership employees posted about the outage on Reddit on Wednesday, explaining that they were relying on spreadsheets and sticky notes to sell customers small parts and repairs, but were not doing any major transactions.
One employee asked other dealership employees, “How many of you are standing around because your whole shop runs on CDK?” Under the heading “CDK Down”, users in Wisconsin and Colorado confirmed that their dealership transaction systems were offline.