As more than 15,000 vehicle dealerships continue to wait for the resolution to last week’s cyberattack on CDK Global, dealers in the trucking sector have been scrambling to look for patchwork solutions to keep their businesses running at peak levels.
CDK announced its was investigating a cyber incident on June 19. The company stated, “erring on the side of caution, we proactively shut all systems down and executed extensive testing and consulted with external third-party experts.”
Initially, the company was able to restore its core dealer management system (DMS) and Digital Retailing solutions, only for an additional attack to occur later that day that “proactively shut down most of our systems.”
In a memo circulated to clients earlier this week, CDK stated it hopes to have its major applications online in “days and not weeks,” yet in another memo circulated Tuesday reported, “We do feel it is important to share that we do not believe that we will be able to get all dealers live prior to June 30.”
The company also reported to Trucks, Parts, Service Wednesday that since uncovering the attack on June 19, it promptly launched an investigation “with leading third-party experts and notified law enforcement. We have begun the restoration process and are continuing to actively engage with our customers and provide them with alternate ways to conduct business.”
In the automotive sector, CDK’s response has come under fire. In the trucking space, dealers have turned their attention inward, implementing their own independent backup plans to remain operational.
[RELATED: CDK hit with cyberattack; dealer systems shut down]
In a message to TPS, Premier Truck Group states it was made aware of CDK’s cybersecurity on June 19 and “immediately took precautionary containment steps to protect our systems and commenced an investigation of the incident, which efforts are ongoing.”
The company states it has implemented its business continuity response plans and “continues to operate at all locations through manual or alternate processes developed to respond to such incidents.”
Winner of the 2023 Successful Dealer Award, Premier Truck Group operates 48 dealer locations across the United States and Canada.
Other dealers have been forced to activate similar strategies. TLG Peterbilt, which operates more than two dozen locations across the Southeast and Midwest, told TPS it has “implemented its business continuity response plans and continues to operate through manual processes developed to response to such incidents. All TLG dealership locations are open and fully operational. TLG is in communication with the CDK team.”
The company adds, “We have requested details from CDK to understand the full scope of the incident and how long certain business operations may be interrupted. TLG remains committed to providing the highest level of service and support to our customers, vendors and business partners as we navigate this incident with CDK and will provide additional updates as we gather more information about the incident from CDK.”
CDK noted key progress was made toward a return to normal late Wednesday.
“We have successfully brought a small initial test group of dealers live on the DMS, and once validation is complete, we will begin phasing in other dealers. We are also actively working to bring live additional applications — including our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Service solutions — and our Customer Care channels.
The company added, ”In the meantime, we have created a Dealer Resource Center with commonly used documents and forms to support their sales and service efforts. We understand and share the urgency for our customers to get back to business as usual, and we will continue providing updates as more information is available.”
