Due to a cyber attack incident, software company CDK Global has shut down its service system, affecting 15,000 car dealerships across the United States, leading some dealerships to resort to using pen and paper for sales.
Car dealerships all over the country have been unable to use the software systems that assist in their daily operations for two consecutive days, impacting their normal business of selling or servicing vehicles.
CDK Global, which provides technical software for car dealerships, stated that they experienced two network incidents, the first one occurring on Wednesday. Upon learning about the network incident, the company shut down most of its systems as a precaution. Some systems were restored later that day. However, another network incident occurred subsequently.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a spokesperson for CDK mentioned that they are assessing the situation and providing regular updates to customers. The company offers software to nearly 15,000 dealerships for managing sales, payroll, and general office operations.
CDK stated that they cannot predict a timetable for resolving the issue. According to messages sent to dealerships, the systems have been unusable at least on Wednesday and Thursday.
“We remain vigilant, working to restore our services and get dealerships back to normal operations as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for CDK said.
Some dealerships have had to resort to using pen and paper to record sales transactions.
Geoffrey Pohanka, Chairman of Pohanka Automotive Group, told the Huari Daily that his company heavily relies on the CDK system in their daily business operations.
He stated that they are now manually completing paperwork for sales and repair orders. This is a workaround and emergency plan that dealerships have in place for potential situations like this, including in the event of a power outage.
“The issue is, if this situation persists for a long time, it will be very challenging,” he added.