CDK Global Struck By Second Cyberattack While Investigating Incident

CDK Global has disclosed that it experienced an additional cyberattack in the course of its investigation into a cyberattack that occurred earlier in the same week. While limited details are known about the new incident, it may place additional strain on the firm’s investigations and its efforts to return to usual operations.

The second incident forced several auto dealerships in the U.S. and Canada to come to a near-standstill, with staff stating that the outage could last for days. CDK Global is a multinational corporation that provides software to auto dealerships, with at least 15,000 dealers relying on its offering.

Incident Extends CDK Global Systems Outage

After the initial attack, CDK Global shut down most of its systems on Wednesday, while working to investigate the incident and restore systems. “We are actively investigating a cyber incident.,” the company said. “Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible.”

Later on the same day, the software firm managed to restore systems involved with its core DMS and Digital Retailing activities. In a statement to the Cyber Express, a spokesman from CDK Global said:
“As we’ve communicated previously, we are currently investigating a cyber incident. Erring on the side of caution, we proactively shut all systems down and executed extensive testing and consulted with external third-party experts.

With the work done so far, our core DMS and Digital Retailing solutions have been restored. We are continuing to conduct extensive tests on all other applications, and we will provide updates as we bring those applications back online.

Our first priority is always the security of our customers, and our actions reflect our obligation to them as a trusted partner.”
However, this restoration was short-lived, as the firm experienced a subsequent cyberattack on the same day:
“Late in the evening of June 19, we experienced an additional cyber incident and proactively shut down most of our systems. In partnership with third party experts, we are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers. We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.”
According to CNN, sources appeared to confirm that the outage could last for several days in light of the second cyberattack. The CDK Global outage makes information related to sales deals, negotiations and customer appointments inaccessible by salespeople who work at affected dealerships.

Incident Comes Ahead of Summer Sales Season

The incident has caused concerns among dealers who anticipate business during the summer months. “This is where we need systems functioning,” stated Jeff Ramsey, an executive with Ourisman Auto Group which operates various dealerships.

This had led to dealers switching to alternative methods to handle sales such as hand-written notes of buyer’s orders. Brian Benstock, general manager of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura, stated, “My selling team can hand-write a buyer’s order.”

Companies such as Kia, Toyota and Stellantis and Ford have also been working on alternate ways to handle customer services due to the CDK outage.

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