Auto retailers and dealerships across the US are facing further disruptions following a second cyberattack on tech company CDK Global, which develops software for managing customer relationships and vehicle data.
A message from CDK to its customers on Thursday warned that the additional cyberattack, which occurred late Wednesday, could prolong outages. The company stated that its customer support teams remain unavailable as a security precaution and that it lacks an estimated timeline for resolving the issue. As a result, dealers’ systems are expected to be unavailable at a minimum until Thursday.
CDK spokesperson Lisa Finney confirmed the second incident and noted that most of the company’s systems remain shut down. She assured that CDK is working with third-party experts to assess the impact and provide regular updates to customers.
According to CDK’s website, the company’s software is used in approximately 15,000 dealerships. The cyberattack was initially reported early Wednesday, with many dealerships experiencing outages with their CDK-run dealer management systems. These systems allow dealers to manage customer appointments, vehicle records, and other data. Several CDK customers took to social media and Reddit to express frustration over the outages, describing workarounds that do not rely on the downed software.
Some CDK functions began to return on Wednesday afternoon, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the ongoing cyberattack.
CDK did not answer Truth Voices’ specific questions about the incidents, including if it’s aware of any exfiltration of data from its systems. It’s not yet clear if the company has the ability to determine what customer data, if any, was stolen.
