CDK Global says some U.S. car dealerships are back up after last week's cyberattack

By Ciara Linnane

News raises hopes the disruption at many outlets across the U.S. can soon be ended

Software company CDK Global said it has managed to bring a batch of U.S. car dealerships back on to its system after a cyberattack severely disrupted their operations last week, raising hopes the issue can soon be resolved.

"We have successfully brought a small initial test group of dealers live on the Dealer Management System (DMS), and once validation is complete, we will begin phasing in other dealers," CDK said in emailed comments.

The company is working to bring live additional applications-including its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Service solutions-and its Customer Care channels.

In the meantime, it has set up a Dealer Resource Center with commonly used documents and forms to support sales and service efforts.

"We understand and share the urgency for our customers to get back to business as usual, and we will continue providing updates as more information is available," the company said.

Shares of its parent Brookfield Business Partners LP (BBU) rose 6.8% on Wednesday after falling 7% last week.

The attack impacted the operations of Group 1 Automotive Inc. (GPI), AutoNation Inc. (AN), Lithia Motors Inc. (LAD), Ashbury Automotive Group Inc. (ABG), Sonic Automotive Inc. (SAH)and CarMax Inc. (KMX), the companies disclosed earlier this week.

CarMax said it doesn't use CDK for its dealer-management system, but it does work with other dealers for parts and expected a knock-on effect from the hack.

Several dealers across the U.S. have had to halt or find alternatives for their service orders, sales, title work and in some cases even payroll because of the cyberattack.

"We have gone old school" using paper, an assistant service manager at a Philadelphia-area Ford dealership said Friday. "We are doing it all old-fashioned style, pushing through how we can." The employee didn't want to identify himself because he wasn't authorized to speak with MarketWatch.

For more, see: Car dealerships go 'old school' as CDK Global cyberattack forces some services to go back to paper

-Ciara Linnane

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06-27-24 0803ET

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