CDK Global cyberattack has AutoCanada using 'manual and alternative processes'

Canada’s only publicly traded dealership group is among the thousands of other auto retailers across North America grappling with the shutdown of its dealership management system (DMS) following the CDK Global cyberattacks on June 19. 

AutoCanada Inc. said late June 24 that it has kept its dealerships open through the outage, using “manual and alternative processes,” despite support for its sales, service, inventory and accounting functions being cut off. 

The Edmonton-based group that owns 66 new-vehicle stores in Canada and 18 in the United States joins a series of other large North American dealership groups affected by the cyberattack, including Lithia Motors Inc., AutoNation Inc., Group 1 Automotive Inc. Penske Automotive Group Inc. and Asbury Automotive Inc. 

CDK Global, a unit of Toronto-based Brookfield Business Partners, claims more than 15,000 dealership customers across Canada and the United States.  

Once informed of the cyberattacks, AutoCanada said it “immediately took precautionary measures” to protect its systems. It continues to review the impact of the incident, but has not yet found any compromises. 

“As the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident, including the extent to which the threat actor may have accessed any customer or vendor data maintained by CDK through the DMS, are not yet known,” the company said in a release. 

AutoCanada added that the incident “has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the company’s business operations until the relevant systems” are back online. 

While CDK Global continued efforts to restore its North American operations six days after two ransomware attacks forced it to shut down most operations, the company told sibling publication Automotive News early June 24 that it had no updates on its efforts to recover its systems.

— Mark Hollmer of Automotive News contributed to this report.