Latest cyberattack targets auto dealer software impacting entire country

Computer hack of auto dealers software just the latest digital attack

Another cyber attack - this time on CDK Global - the software used by thousands of auto dealerships.

FOX 2 (WJBK) - Another cyberattack - this time on CDK Global - the software used by thousands of auto dealerships.

"It's Michigan, it's the entire country - about 15,000 dealers they service, so this is a big outage in our industry," said Todd Szott. "And hopefully it will be rectified soon."

Szott is president of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association - he says CDK notified clients early this morning.

"They shut us down from being able to access it while they investigate actually what happened," he said.

Cybersecurity expert David Derigiotis says hackers are relentless.

"They've acted swiftly - they've taken all systems off-line," he said. "To me, it has all the looks and feel of a ransomware event.

"We're dependent on technology - we're dependent on software and if there's any fail-point along the whole digital supply chain, it has ripple effects and that's what we're seeing with this exact example here."

Just last month a ransomware attack at Ascension Health created chaos at their hospitals.

"When you're dependent on a third-party, a vendor, on any type of software to provide a critical aspect of your business," he said. "If it's interacting with clients, if it's being able to access patient health records, if it's being able to transact and handle payments - if any of those things goes down, it creates a significant business interruption loss.

"That's why it's so important to pre-plan because these things do happen at some point."

That point is right now for CDK leaving dealerships unable to finalize sales or register vehicles with the Secretary of State.

"The other system that's down is what they call the CDR System - which is the system we use to register vehicles with the State of Michigan - because CDK actually runs that system," Szott said.

It means paperwork will be delayed - but Szott says, they are still able to do business.

"We can still help you pick out a car, you can still do a test drive, we can do an oil change, we can maintain your car (or) fix your car," he said. "That's not a problem."

CDK is telling FOX 2 they are "actively investigating a cyber incident and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible." They say they are confident the CDK phones, DMs and digital retail have been restored.