Dealerships rejoice after critical software restored following cyberattack that slowed operations

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — Car dealerships impacted by CDK Global's cyberattack are returning to normal operations.

Wednesday afternoon, the company released the following statement to News 5:

The nearly two-week outage affected 15,000 dealerships nationwide, including dealers in Northeast Ohio.

"I love the Wrangler. It's a lot of fun to drive especially in the summertime," said Matthew Leutwyler, finance director at Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Willoughby.

Leutwyler said his team powered through the software outage and delivered customer services despite a few challenges.

"I've been in this business over 30 years and this is the first time we've ever had a system like this go down for this long," Leutwyler said.

Cyber incidents creating headaches for Cleveland-area automobile dealerships, customers

CDK Global's software is considered the brains of the dealership. It helps manage sales, financing, vehicle trades, repairs, and maintenance. Some dealerships also use it for other functions, including payroll.

"Everything is all integrated," Leutwyler said. "So when it enters into one system it pushes into all the other systems and it starts with CDK. I know that there were a few dealerships that did shut down that didn't want to do business during that period. But we were not one of them. We continued to service our customers."

However, carrying on the business of the day involved handwriting documents that computers typically handle.

"We were able again to pivot and we have other systems in place that we were able to utilize," Leutwyler said. "We had to handwrite a few of the different forms that we use, but we were able to still deliver cars."

Leutwyler said CDK Global's software was restored Tuesday at his location. He spent the day entering information into the computer, including data for about 70 sales during the outage.

"Everything is safe and secure, and we're good to go," Leutwyler said.

Cliff Steinhauser with the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a nonprofit that educates the public about best practices for staying safe online, said ransomware attacks are increasing.

"Unfortunately, they're very profitable for attackers and there are a ton of systems out there that have vulnerabilities," Steinhauser said.

He said safety rules apply to both individuals and businesses.

"Make sure that you're using strong and unique passwords, using multi factor authentication, keeping your software updated, avoiding phishing and social engineering scams and having good backups of your data," Steinhauser said.

He said being resilient in this new age of cyberattacks means having backup processes for when main systems go down.

"A lot of dealerships had to resort to pen and paper, manual type processes to get through this," Steinhauser said. "I wonder how many of them have practiced that before in case something like this happened. If you are the victim of a ransomware attack having a backup of your software and your data is crucial so that you can get back online sooner."

Steinhauser said customers should be extra cautious with any inbound messages they receive.

"Watch out for suspicious messages pretending to be car dealerships (or) pretending to be CDK. If you get any kind of in inbound message that's alarming or urgent just slow down and double-check that you can trust the sender of that message and make sure it's legitimate," Steinhauser said. "Always verify on a trusted communication method. So, call your dealer, text them, (or) go see them in person."

He said people should also monitor their credit reports for any unusual activity.

Leutwyler said every event is a learning experience, even after decades on the job.

"We have a good team here at the dealership. So, we all work together to make sure that we took care of our customers," Leutwyler said.

Wednesday afternoon, the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers' Association (GCADA) reported car sales were down 15.74% this past June compared to June 2023.

"The disruption of the dealership DMS (Dealership Management System) for those on the CDK platform definitely had an effect on new and used vehicle sales at the end of June," said Lou Vitantonio, president of the GCADA. "We expect the systems to be back online in the next few days, which pushes recording of many sales into the month of July. Although the outage has been difficult, our market is still positive through the second quarter of 2024 versus 2023."