Car dealerships hit with massive computer system outage

CDK Global, the company that provides management software for nearly 15,000 car dealerships in North America, is down for a second day following a cyberattack, according to a report from Automotive News. The outage has left car dealerships across North America unable to access the internal systems used to track car sales, view customer information, schedule maintenance, and more.

On Wednesday, CDK Global told dealerships that it’s “investigating a cyber incident” and “proactively shut all systems down” while addressing the issue. However, as reported by Automotive News, CDK Global restored its systems shortly after, only to shut them down hours later due to “an additional cyber incident.”

Many car dealerships have had to go back to pen and paper while CDK’s software is down. Teddy Morse, the CEO of the Ed Morse Automotive Group, tells Automotive News that the dealer “can still take a piece of paper and walk it over to the technician and get the job done.”

CDK Global hasn’t provided any information on the cyber incident that caused the attack — or who’s behind it. There’s no word on when CDK will restore its service, either. “At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers’ systems will not be available at a minimum on Thursday, June 20th,” CDK Global said in its message to dealers. The Verge reached out to CDK Global with a request for more information but didn’t immediately hear back.