Last week, CDK Global – which serves close to 15,000 automotive dealerships in the U.S. – shut down most of its systems following a cyberattack that occurred early last Wednesday morning. The company then set out to determine the scope of the damage from that attack, as well as figure out how to patch any holes that might be present in its software. However, that process hit a bit of a snag the very next day when CDK brought its systems back online, only to experience a second cyberattack. As one might imagine, this downtime continues to have a big impact on many Ford dealers, too.
As Ford Authority reported last week, certain Ford dealers are having troubles completing the sales process for vehicles because of this shutdown, which has left some trying to find workarounds or even doing things the old fashioned way, via pen and paper. However, CDK previously expected to have the issue resolved in a day or two, but it continued to pose problems throughout the weekend that continued into early Monday as well, according to Reuters.
JP Morgan analysts say that this outage has “plunged the auto retail industry into disarray,” as CDK’s dealer management system is used by many Ford dealers (and others) to complete vehicle sales, track store profitability, and even monitor employee compensation. Every dealer that utilizes this system has experienced some sort of disruption, though those range from simply making the job of selling vehicles more laborious to some stores that claim it’s having a negative impact on sales as well.
That list includes Village Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, which sold around 100 vehicles last week, though those transactions are now in limbo since CDK generates the paperwork needs to pass them on to the new owners. The dealer is figuring out a workaround and it expects to be able to complete this process mid-week, however, which is also when CDK anticipates its systems being back online. Meanwhile, a group of hackers has claimed responsibility for these acts, and are demanding millions of dollars in ransom money before they’ll agree to stop the attacks.
We’ll have more on this cyberattack soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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WELL……. HERE’S WHAT I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS SITUATION….. I WOULD “BET” THAT THE IT PERSON THAT HANDLES THIS SITUATION TO “KEEP EVERYTHING SAFE” AT ALL COST’S IS PROBABLY FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND APPOINTED TO THIS “IT” POSITION NOT TOO AWFUL LONG AGO. HE IS SITTING BACK LAUGHING AND BUSTING A GUT BECAUSE NO ONE CAN FIGURE OUT HOW THIS CONTINUES TO PLAGUE THE COUNTRY???? IT WON’T BE LONG NOW, MARK MY WORD….. THIS IS GONNA CREATE A REAL BIG MESS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND OR PERHAPS THROUGH THE “WORLD”. DOES ANYONE REALLY GIVE A RIP IN OUR GOVERNMENT???? WHY, WHY DOES THIS CONTINUE TO HAPPEN AND “NO ONE” CAN FIGURE OUT “WHY”????? THIS IS PATHETIC, SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE, NO EXCUSES!!!! NONE!!! THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. EVER!!!