«Everything is frozen»: Third day of cyberattack paralyzes 15,000 car dealerships
On the third day of a massive cyberattack, over 15,000 car dealerships nationwide are facing significant disruption. Their back-end management systems are paralyzed, halting sales and forcing some dealerships to process transactions the old-fashioned way, by hand.
CDK Global, the leading provider of merchant management systems and digital retail solutions, reported that the security breaches began on Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, CDK's core systems were restored, but were shut down again on Thursday after a second hacker attack. This has made it nearly impossible for thousands of dealers to buy and sell vehicles this week.
"We can't process any documents. Everything is frozen, everything is blocked - we can't move money back and forth to pay off cars or fund our customers' transactions," Tom Maioli, who owns Celebrity Motor Car Company with dealerships in New York and New Jersey, told CBS MoneyWatch. He said his business was "completely paralyzed."
Customers are being greeted with signs like this one at car dealerships nationwide....
On Thursday, X-user "Car Dealership Guy" was featured on CNBC. He said the biggest question facing the auto industry after all this chaos is, "Will the industry continue to centralize and consolidate technology? This has been the biggest trend in auto retail."
Such disruptions have forced back-office staff to write orders and paperwork without computers - a clear case of "first-world problems."
"My sales team can write a sales contract by hand," Brian Benstock, general manager of the Long Island City-based Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura dealerships, told CNN.
There are no reports yet of foreign adversaries being involved in the security breach. CDK also has not given a timetable for restoring core systems.
A lingering concern is the economic fallout of this cyber incident, given the size of the automotive industry.
In the fast-paced world of automotive sales, this incident shows how dependent the industry has become on digital solutions and how vulnerable it can be to cyber attacks. The coming days will be crucial to see how quickly the affected systems come back online and whether further security measures are put in place to prevent future attacks.
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About the Author: Natalia Bobro Chief Digital Transormation Officer
Natalia Bobro is Langmeier Software's Chief Digital Transformation Officer (CDTO) and in this role has responsibility for the company's overall business development and strategy. As CDTO, Natalia Bobro focuses on positioning Langmeier Software as a leading technology company in software and services.
Under Bobro's leadership, Langmeier Software focuses on a broad range of business areas, including artificial intelligence (AI) applications, cloud services and enterprise applications. It invests heavily in the development of new software products and solutions, and promotes the adoption of AI & cloud services such as Cloud Backup, aBusiness Genius and aBusiness Suite.
