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I know it’s tricky, but this week we have to spare a thought for America’s car dealerships as while they were all busy applying sky-high markups to the cars they sell, they were the victim of a massive cyberattack. The hit affected the CDK Global computer services provider and has left dealerships across the U.S. and Canada struggling with its fallout for the past two days.
The attack hit CDK Global on Wednesday June 19 and restricted dealers across the country to using pen and paper for all their admin, reports the Wall Street Journal. The attack has restricted many dealers’ ability to sell and repair cars for customers across America:
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman for CDK said. The company provides nearly 15,000 dealers software to manage their sales, payroll and general office operations, according to the company’s website.
Meanwhile, dealers were left to address the fallout, in some cases using pen and paper to record sales.
Dealers “are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately,” said Mike Stanton, chief executive of the National Automobile Dealers Association, in a written statement.
Now, it appears as though there may be no quick fix for the issues plaguing America’s dealerships. The issue’s they’re now facing as a result of the computer outage are expected to last “for several days” while CDK gets to the bottom of the issue, reports Automotive News.
As the systems provider rushes to find a fix that addresses the attack, questions have now been raised over security at the computer provider:
“Cyber incidents are a constant threat, and one we take extremely seriously,” said Nikhil Kalani, chief information security officer at Reynolds and Reynolds. “Cybersecurity has been a very high priority for our company for many years, as demonstrated by our acquisition of Proton Dealership IT, the industry’s leading cybersecurity services provider, and the construction of our state-of-the-art Security Operations Center.
“The reported events this week reinforce the need to keep cybersecurity a major focus throughout our entire industry.”
The issues at dealers are expected to continue into today, with automakers encouraging customers to remain patient with dealerships while they struggle through the problems.
A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik’s The Morning Shift.