DMS Outage Continues

The CDK Global software systems shutdown continued on Monday, marking nearly a weeklong outage affecting thousands of auto dealers’ daily operations.

The company, which sustained two cyberattacks on Wednesday, said only that it had “begun the restoration process” and that it expects that to take “several days,” according to a statement by spokesperson Lisa Finney.

CDK said it was reaching out to its customers to present alternative methods of completing business tasks.

It said that when the first cyberattack took place, it alerted law enforcement while starting its own investigation utilizing third-party consultants.

The company hasn’t said how many customers are effected by the shutdown, though its website indicates it serves about 15,000 dealerships. The outage affects its dealer management system, along with other software.

Meanwhile, dealers are compensating by various means, including handwriting necessary deal documents in many cases.

Group 1 Automotive, which operates over 200 stores in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, said the CDK shutdown disrupted its U.S. operations that use the company’s systems, which it said it “isolated” from the CDK platform out of security precautions.

The group said it hadn’t determined the “material impact” of the outage on its business.

“Our associates are coming together with an unwavering focus on delivering the best possible customer experience," Group 1 said in a statement. "Their efforts have been nothing short of exemplary.”

Auto retail compliance specialist Gil Van Over said he’s advising clients of Mosaic Audit Services that hadn’t already used electronic contracting to make the switch in order to bridge the gap and ultimately make their document processing more secure, despite the rare cyberattack.