On Wednesday, a massive cyberattack on CDK led car dealerships across the United States to pause their operations after they lost access to the system that facilitates vehicle sales. The company’s website states that its software is being used by over 15,000 car dealerships across the country, highlighting the scale of the attack and how it has brought the sector to a halt in minutes. In a country where over 50 million cars are sold a year, one day can have serious consequences for businesses that are forced to turn away customers.
An X account with the handle GuyDealership posed that this cyber attack followed one on Findlay Auto Group last week and until this attack. While many investors are focused on the possibilities of integrating artificial intelligence into commercial sales, these attacks may shift the focus on enhancing cybersecurity to ensure that attacks of this nature are not able to happen.
What we know about the attack so far
Very little is known, and this story will be updated as more details are released.
Users of the software have been communicating about the outage on Reddit. One user posted a letter allegedly sent by the company, saying that they are “currently experiencing a cyber incident” and that “out of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down a majority of our systems.” The company did not provide a timeline for when they believed the software would be up and running again, leading many to voice frustration on the forum.
