How a Cyberattack Took 15,000 Car Dealers Offline

Roughly 15,000 car dealerships across the US and Canada have gone days without software systems crucial to running their business, following multiple cyberattacks on CDK Global. The company is one of just a handful of dealer management system providers that underpin auto retailers’ ability to access customer records, schedule appointments, handle car-repair orders and complete transactions, among other tasks. CDK has confirmed that it’s been the subject of a cyber-ransom event, and Bloomberg reported that the company was planning to pay the tens of millions of dollars that the group behind the hacks had demanded in order to restore service.

CDK’s systems first went down around 2 a.m. Eastern time on June 19, on what otherwise would have been a busy day for dealers because of the Juneteenth national holiday. The company told its customers that it had experienced a cyber incident and had shut down a majority of its systems. After briefly restoring some of its services around midday, CDK informed dealers of a second attack and shut its systems back down.