A cyber attack this week took down computer management systems, forcing more than 15,000 car dealerships across North America to scramble to process orders manually.
Auto dealers across the US and Canada, including those selling BMW, were having difficulty fulfilling orders due to issues with the software they use to manage their operations and workflow.
Sales reps and back office support staff were forced to write orders and complete paperwork the old-fashioned way: with pen and paper.
“My sales team can handwrite orders for buyers,” says Brian Benstock, general manager of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura dealerships based in Long Island City. He told CNN.
CDK Global, the Chicago-area IT company whose software was hacked, said it could take several more days to get its systems back up and running.
“We were forced to shut down all of our systems,” a company representative said on Wednesday, adding that “we have conducted extensive testing and consulted with external third-party experts.”
On Thursday, a company representative told consumers, “At this time, we do not know the expected timeline for a resolution, so dealer systems will likely be unavailable for a few days.”
The news of the message conveyed to the customer Bloomberg News reported.
CDK told customers it suffered a second cyber attack late Wednesday night, forcing it to shut down most of its systems for a second day on Thursday.
More than 15,000 dealerships that rely on CDK systems to process transactions, access customer records, handle repairs and schedule appointments were left to fend for themselves.
“Dealers are extremely committed to protecting customer information and are proactively seeking information from CDK so they can determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident and respond appropriately,” the National Automobile Dealers Association said in a statement.
Tim Royce, president of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, told Bloomberg the outage affected hundreds of dealerships north of the border.
Reuss said that once systems are back up and running, transactions currently recorded with paper and pen will eventually need to be recorded digitally.
“There will be some aftereffects from this incident,” he said.
BMW’s North American unit issued a statement to Reuters confirming that dealers had been affected.
“The CDK outage is affecting auto dealers across the United States and Canada, including some BMW Group dealers,” a BMW North America spokesman told Reuters.
Investment firm Brookfield Business Partners acquired CDK in April 2022 for $6.41 billion in cash, taking private the last major publicly traded company that provides software to auto dealerships and manufacturers.
With post wire
