Cyberattack hits thousands of US car dealers

CDK Global, the provider of a software platform for car dealerships, was forced to shut down most of its systems due to a “cyber incident.” This had serious consequences for car dealerships in the US. According to reports, thousands of car dealerships there were largely paralyzed for several hours on Wednesday.

CDK provides, among other things, a sales platform. According to the company, its customers include around 15,000 US car dealerships.

For security reasons, the company shut down all systems on Wednesday morning, a company spokeswoman said. The central dealer management system and digital retail solutions were restored later in the day.

However, this incident did not last long, as another cyber incident occurred late Wednesday evening and the company again had to shut down most of its systems.

“We are working with outside experts to assess the impact and provide regular updates to our customers. We remain vigilant in our efforts to restore our services and return our merchants to normal business operations as quickly as possible,” the spokeswoman said by email Thursday morning.

As the power outage continued, several employees at the dealership reported on the social media platform Reddit that they were no longer able to work properly due to the outages, with some saying they had been sent home.