Software maker CDK said it will take “several days” to restore its systems after a series of cyberattacks, sending auto dealerships and shops across the US that rely on its software into a second week of disruption.
CDK spokeswoman Lisa Finney said in a statement that the company has “begun the process of restoring” its systems and “continues to actively work with customers to provide alternative means of conducting business.”
No specific timeline for restoration was given, although a recorded phone message to CDK customers heard by TechCrunch on Monday said the company would “share a timeline as soon as we have it.”
“DMS integration tasks cannot be performed,” the recorded message said, referring to the company's flagship dealer management software remaining largely inoperable.
CDK develops customer management software that helps auto dealerships and car shops manage customer and vehicle records, and provides its technology to approximately 15,000 dealerships across North America.
The cyberattack, reportedly ransomware, began on June 19 and caused widespread outages for CDK's dealer customers. CDK confirmed that it had suffered a further cyberattack later that day and said the outages were likely prolonged. It is unclear if and how the second cyberattack was related to the first.
Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, said the hackers were demanding that the company pay tens of millions of dollars in ransom to get its systems back. It's not yet clear whether the company has paid or plans to pay the ransom, and CDK spokesman Finney declined to comment when asked by TechCrunch.
As of earlier this week, dealerships across the U.S. continued to experience system outages. Group 1 Automotive, one of the largest U.S. auto dealers, said in a Monday filing with government regulators that it continued to experience system outages across its U.S. operations that rely on CDK's software.
Several other companies that rely on CDK software, including Sonic Automotive and car rental giant Penske, have also reported ongoing outages at various levels of their operations due to the CDK cyberattack.
Sonic said that because the incident is ongoing, it cannot yet determine whether and what customer data was stolen, if any.
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