Colorado auto dealers feel crunch in nationwide cyberattack on CDK

A nationwide cyberattack on car dealerships is being felt across Colorado, but the extent of the problem varies dealer to dealer. That’s according to Matthew Groves, CEO and president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

CDK Global, a company that provides software for thousands of auto dealers in the U.S. and Canada, was hit by back-to-back cyberattacks on Wednesday, according to multiple news organizations. The attack was still being felt nationally, and in Colorado, on Friday and struck dealers differently.

“I have spoken to several dealers and it’s hitting at different levels,” Groves said. “Some dealers use CDK for everything, some have a combination of CDK and some other company, and some don’t use CDK at all.”

The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association represents about 270 franchises in the state, Groves said.

CDK Global is a huge fixture in the automobile industry. The company provides software technology to dealers that help with day–to–day operations – facilitating vehicle sales, financing, insurance and repairs.

For those impacted by the CDK Global attack, dealers may have to revert to the old-fashioned way of sealing a financing deal with a customer, Groves said.

“They are just having to go back to the paper-and-pen, handwriting contracts for finance companies,” Groves said. “We’ll still be able to sell vehicles, but it will take a while to write a contract by hand rather than electronically.”

CDK serves thousands of locations across the country.

CKD is “actively investigating a cyber incident” and the company shut down all its systems out of an abundance of caution, a company spokesperson told The Associated Press.

The company gave no indication when the issues with its software would be resolved.

Several major auto companies told the AP Friday that the CDK outage had impacted some of their dealers, but that sales operations continue.

Groves said there is a worry that the cyber-attack compromised customer data. The answer to those questions will likely come later.

“That’s the tricky part right now,” he said. “It’s now a waiting game.”