Car Dealership Data Provider Suffers Cyber Incident, Actively Investigates

A cyber incident at automotive data provider CDK Global, whose software is utilized by auto dealers, disrupted operations on Wednesday across the U.S. and Canada.

What Happened: The company, which was purchased by Brookfield Business Partners BBU in 2022 for more than $8 billion, is “actively investigating” the issue, CNN reported.

CDK spokesperson Lisa Finney confirmed to Benzinga that the company “proactively shut all systems down and executed extensive testing and consulted with external third-party experts.”

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Why It Matters: CDK Global prides itself on providing technology services and software solutions to help some 15,000 auto dealerships run their businesses more efficiently.

The software at these auto dealerships is integral to managing deal records, scheduling services and storing critical customer information.

CDK Global reported partial restoration of some systems later in the day. A full recovery is still pending.

“With the work done so far, our core DMS and Digital Retailing solutions have been restored. We are continuing to conduct extensive tests on all other applications, and we will provide updates as we bring those applications back online,” Finney added. “Our first priority is always the security of our customers, and our actions reflect our obligation to them as a trusted partner.”

Representatives from Brookfield did not respond to Benzinga’s requests for comment.

This isn’t the first cyber incident to affect an automotive-related company. Less than two weeks ago, Advance Auto Parts AAP announced it was investigating a potential data attack connected to Snowflake SNOW.

Reports surfaced on a dark web hacker forum indicating malicious actors may have stolen information on at least 380 million customers from the automotive aftermarket company.

Hackers stole data from some 358,000 employees. Some 44 million loyalty and gas card numbers leaked.

Now Read: Advance Auto Parts Probes Potential Cyber Incident Linked To Snowflake

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Image: Dall-E