A new survey suggests some dealerships could be vulnerable to cyberattacks that endanger the personal information of their customers.
Such data breaches not only would prove an immediate business threat to dealerships, they also could result in spooked consumers never doing business with hacked stores again, the study warned.
Total Dealer Compliance, a New York City auditing firm, surveyed 200 dealerships in five states to show the impact of data security on the sales and reputations of dealerships. TDC conducts security audits for all areas of dealerships.
The survey found that nearly 84 percent of consumers would not buy another car from a dealership after their data had been compromised by a breach at the dealership.