Cyberattack cripples car dealerships nationwide: CDK Global silent on timeframe to fix
HOUSTON - A cyberattack on a company that manages sales and paperwork for thousands of auto dealerships across the country is now a week old with no clear end in sight.
Illinois-based CDK Global has not offered much of a public explanation, except to say they shut this system down, when hackers got in last week. It left 15,000 dealerships, and their customers, in a bind that's forcing some creative work-arounds to keep business moving.
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For most of us, transportation is critical. Drive long enough, and we'll need to buy a new ride or fix the one we've got.
For car-enthusiast Skip Hammons, the cyberattack was a rude awakening, when he needed a part.
"They couldn't check inventory without physically going on site, putting their hands on a box with it in it, and they couldn't do an online order, because it was tied to CDK's software," he says, "They wouldn't be able to register a purchase."
CDK's software management controls vehicle acquisitions, sales, financing, insuring, repairs and maintenance for dealerships. Going without it is not easy. Not all of Houston's dealership use the CDK service. But for those who do, it's become an administrative headache, completing work by hand rather than computer.
"As a consumer, you're still going to buy a car in the same way that you have before," says RoShelle Salinas, of the Houston Automobile Dealers Association, "You're just going to have to manually fill-out your paperwork, which may take a little bit more time."
The larger problem is the growing regularity of such cyberattacks. Bloomberg reports an Eastern European cyber-gang has claimed responsibility, demanding tens of millions of dollars ransom to undo the damage. Cybersecurity experts say, ultimately, it's a question of economics, and whether it's cheaper to pay a ransom or do the work to guard against the crooks.
"The goal for the corporate entities that are attacked is not to be impenetrable. No one is, but be a harder target than the next guy," says University of Houston Cybersecurity expert Chris Bronk.
In a weekend statement, CDK suggested they were working on restoring their system, amid reports they were also negotiating to pay the ransom that hackers are demanding. A solution for dealerships, who may later demand compensation for the trouble this has caused, could be days or months away.