Canada, U.S. car dealerships to be back online this week after cyberattacks

Software provider CDK Global says almost all auto dealerships in North America have returned online after back-to-back cyberattacks left hundreds offline.

In a statement to Global News, CDK Global said most connections were “live” on its system ahead of the expected full restoration of late Wednesday or early Thursday, as first noted by the company on July 1.

External communications senior manager Lisa Finney added that other applications, including customer care channels, had been restored and customers could call, chat or submit eCases if assistance was needed.

She added that its customer experience program ONE-EIGHTY had been fully restored for Canadian dealerships.

Two weeks ago, back-to-back cyberattacks hit the company, which provides software to thousands of dealerships across North America.

Last Monday, Tim Reuss, Canadian Automobile Dealers Association president and CEO, told Global News that hundreds of Canadian dealers were impacted.

1:17 Car dealership cyberattacks force many Canada, U.S. companies to use pen and paper

Stellantis and Ford confirmed to Global News that dealers of their vehicles were among those down as a result of the system outage, the former noting its dealerships were resorting to pen and paper to complete deals and other processes.

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Group 1 Automotive, which owns and operates 202 auto dealerships, 264 franchises and 32 collision centres in the U.S. and U.K., said in a news release on Monday that its business applications and processes at its American operations were impacted.

More than 15,000 retail locations are serviced by CDK Global in North America.

The hack came as U.S. new-vehicle sales growth slowed for the second quarter, with General Motors reporting just a 0.6 per cent rise compared with 19 per cent last year. Reuters reported the company said some sales tallies would shift to the current quarter due to the hack.

Toyota Motor North America also saw a slowdown, with a nine per cent rise in sales compared with last year’s jump of 20 per cent.

Though restoration is underway, some cybersecurity experts have cautioned that consumers connected to CDK should assume their data may have been breached and to monitor credit and be wary of phishing campaigns.

— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters