Car dealerships are left in chaos after a widespread cyber attack cripples their computer systems after a dizzying array of cyber attacks on American businesses.
On May 8, 2024, Ascension Health System was a victim of cyber-attacks in Michigan, and 18 other states were also impacted.
Nationally, auto dealers are dealing with a hack that has shut down a vital business system for around 15,000 dealers.
For many who depend on its data management for things like sales and parts inventory data, the forced shutdown this week has caused a crushing blow.
Computers are designed to make things more efficient, and this approach works well for both parties.
No one wants to spend hours filling out paperwork at a car dealership, but since the cyber attacks this week, that’s exactly what they have to do.
At Szott Toyota in Waterford on Friday (June 21), managers Mark Mechigian and Joe Beddow did the math on a truck sale using a phone calculator and hand-entered the rest of the data into an in-house computer.
“It makes it a little bit inconvenient on our side, not the customer side, but we’re finding ways to sell and service cars as we’re open as usual,” said President of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association Todd Szott. “We’ve got some big sales targets to hit this month.”
Dave Sierra and Simone Vendes leased their Tacoma for all the school wrangling.
Still, not all dealerships are faring as well. Szott mostly uses the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) system for its Secretary of State transactions.
“Like we used to do before CDR, we’d bundle up the paperwork, and we have to drive it down to the office and register the car that way,” Szott said.
The whole ordeal started earlier this week when CDK Global’s database was hacked.
“Late in the evening of June 19, we experienced an additional cyber incident and proactively shut down most of our systems.
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.
“In partnership with third-party experts, we are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers.”
Many dealers use the CDK system to track sales, make repairs, perform and do credit, and keep their books.
Without it, they would have to fly blind and could not even report to the auto companies as required.
Worse yet, when and if this ends, they will have to recreate all the business they’ve done over the past two or three days and enter it into the system, which will take some time.
Hopefully, the system will be back online by Tuesday, June 25, 2024, but one dealer told us that if it lasted that long, it would be chaotic for them, resulting in a significant loss and a major problem.
“Dealers are very committed to protecting their customer information and are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately.”
National Automobile Dealers Association Senior Director Juliet Guerra
“Our association was informed of the original cyber incident impacting CDK systems, and we received a second notice yesterday that the issue is still being investigated.
“Our Michigan dealers are certainly impacted, as are dealers across the country. Dealerships can still process vehicle sales, it is just a more manual process at the moment.
The association is receiving the same updates as dealers; we are all waiting for news that the system is back up and running.”
Michigan Automobile Dealers Association Executive Vice President James Fackler
