CDK opens online resource center for dealers; rivals also step in to help impacted dealerships

CDK has created a resource center for dealers as the cyberattack disruption entered its third day June 21 with no resolution in sight.

In a note to customers late on June 21, CDK said it had opened up a dealer resource center to assist its clients.

"We have now created a Dealer Resource Center (DRC) to keep your dealership working until our applications are recovered," the company wrote. "The DRC, among other things, has documents and processes on managing daily processes. The information can be found at the Dealer Resource Center link."

In a message sent to customers earlier June 21, the dealership management system giant said: "We continue to act out of caution, and to protect our customers in response to the cyber incidents that occurred on June 19. In addition to our customer systems, many integration points have been disabled."

CDK reiterated it is not sure when its core management systems will be back up and running.

"At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers' systems will not be available likely for several days," the company wrote. "We will continue to provide updates as they become available."

CDK Global was originally hit by a cyberattack June 19. It restored most of its core functionality later that day only to encounter another cyber incident. The next morning, it alerted customers it was shutting down most of its DMS out of caution.

The shutdown of CDK's system is disrupting the automotive retail industry in the U.S. and Canada — from selling vehicles to financing them to repairing them. Additionally, it is the middle of the summer sales season, the industry's intense push to avoid inventory buildups on dealership lots.

Additionally, the cyberattacks have raised alarms about security in the DMS business after similar acts have disrupted operations at universities, casinos, financial institutions and hospitals. It is unclear what, if any, information the cyberattackers may have accessed.

CDK also warned its customers that there are reports of scammers posing as CDK IT support staff.

"We are aware that bad actors are contacting our customers and partners, posing as members or affiliates of CDK, trying to obtain system access," it wrote. "CDK associates will not and have not been soliciting access or passwords to customers systems or environments. Any request should be immediately treated as suspicious."

The company asked customers to tell their employees to be vigilant and not to provide any sensitive information.

"Please reiterate to your employees the importance of being alert to acts of phishing and take the necessary preventative precautions. Engage with known or validated CDK associates, and do not provide sensitive information such as passwords or provide system access under any circumstances," the company said.

While CDK struggles to bring its DMS back online, three of its competitors are working to help impacted dealerships.

"Our industry is under attack," Reynolds and Reynolds President Chris Walsh said in a June 21 post on LinkedIn. "CDK was reportedly a target, but the impact of this goes far beyond CDK — it is hurting a lot of dealers and consumers as we enter the peak of summer. We all need to find ways to help."

Walsh said Reynolds is "looking at what we can do, and most importantly, what we can do quickly." He said the company is increasing production at its printing facility to supply dealers with the paper materials they need to conduct business, such as repair orders, forms for purchases and retail installment contracts.

"We can also set up tools quickly for dealers that aren't on CDK's DMS but use other impacted software like eLead CRM," Walsh wrote. "We are providing our Desking solution to these customers at no charge so they can work deals effectively. No contract, no fees, just access to the software."

Walsh said his company "will continue to find ways to help. We feel for every dealer impacted and are doing everything we can to help them. We are open to ideas — all are welcome. Thank you for all you are doing."

Tekion CEO Jay Vijayan said on LinkedIn that his company stands "with the entire auto retail community in light of the recent CDK cyber incident and its impact to dealers and the automotive ecosystem."

Vijayan repeated that Tekion's platform has not been impacted and is "operating normally."

"We have temporarily suspended all integrations and data feeds to CDK as a precautionary measure," Vijayan wrote. "We take data privacy, security and compliance very seriously."

He said the Tekion team, understanding how critical a DMS is to dealerships, is "actively working on a technology solution to help those affected retailers get back to serving their customers and maintain business continuity for their teams. We will continue to provide more updates in the coming days."

Cox's Dealertrack said it temporarily suspended on June 19 integrations with CDK and their systems and solutions. The DMS provider said they continue to monitor its networks and systems and said in a June 21 statement they are prepared to take "necessary actions to support our customers' business continuity." 

"While actively supporting our customers to continue to run their business," Cox said, "we established a secure microsite that our customers are actively using now to access support and guidance, work-arounds and actions they can take while CDK systems are not available. “