Auto Hack: CDK Says “Small Initial Test Group” Of Dealers Are Back Online 

CDK Global informed auto dealers on Wednesday that it has managed to “bring a small initial test group” of dealers online. This announcement comes a little more than a week after a ransomware attack crippled the software company’s Dealer Management System (DMS), used by thousands of dealers nationwide. 

X user Car Dealership Guy posted a screenshot of the email CDK sent dealers early Wednesday evening. CDK said that once the “small initial test group” goes live on its DMS, it will then onboard other dealers. 

Dear Valued Customers,

Thank you for your continued partnership as we work together to get you back to business.

We have successfully brought a small initial test group of dealers live on the core DMS. Once validation is completed, we will then begin phasing in other dealerships on the core DMS (accounting, parts, service, sales F&I, user management and document management).

You will get an email notification from an official CDK representative and email address in the coming days with details on the phased approach.

BREAKING

CDK Global has *just* successfully restored system access to a small initial test group of dealers!

Huge milestone and hopefully the start of broader restoration.

Once validation is complete, they will begin phasing in other dealerships. pic.twitter.com/2J1PYaK90g

— Car Dealership Guy (@GuyDealership) June 26, 2024

CDK works with more than 15,000 auto dealers nationwide. Since the cyber incident was reported last Wednesday, many have grappled with disruptions.

Major auto dealers, including Sonic Automotive Group, Group 1 Automotive, AutoNation, Lithia Motors, and Asbury Automotive Group, have already filed disclosures with the US Securities and Exchange Commission about the cyber incident negatively impacting their business. 

Bloomberg reported that CDK was hacked by the cyber gang BlackSuit, which demanded millions of dollars. 

X users Car Dealership Guy reported on Tuesday that “Dealership outages will continue until at least June 30th.” 

A Mazda dealership in Seekonk, Massachusetts, told CNN earlier this week, “The financial impact it will directly have on us will take months to correct, if not years.”

The ongoing CDK outage forced many auto dealers to use pen and paper to complete transactions, while some closed their shops altogether.