Cyberattack Affecting Car Dealers Expected to Be Resolved by July 4

A cyberattack that's disrupted US car dealerships for nearly two weeks is nearly resolved. 

CDK Global, which provides IT services to auto dealers, plans to restore company systems to all customers by Thursday, July 4.

“We are continuing the phased approach to the restoration process and are rapidly bringing dealers to live on the core DMS (Dealer Management System),” the company is telling customers via its cyberattack hotline. "We anticipate all dealers will be live by late Wednesday, July 3rd, or by early morning Thursday, July 4th."

The outage at CDK Global, which serves approximately 15,000 dealer locations, started on June 19 when the company detected a mysterious “cyber incident" and shut down most of its IT systems. A day later, CDK Global detected an “additional cyber incident,” forcing another shutdown. 

The ensuing outage has caused many dealerships in the US to cancel services or resort to pen and paper to fulfill duties. CNN reports the disruption has been so bad it’s crippled some dealerships from paying their workers. 

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CDK didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But investigators have traced the attack to a ransomware gang called BlackSuit, which claims to have hacked dozens of companies. It's unclear if CDK has paid the ransom.

In the meantime, some dealership employees on Reddit say CDK has begun restoring their systems. “We're up and running. I still have about 140 ROs [repair orders] left to input on top of whatever I'm dealing with today. My poor parts department is BURIED. They're really struggling,” wrote one staffer.