Auto retailers and car dealerships across the U.S. are facing another one-day outage after a second cyberattack hit CDK Global, a technology company that develops software for automotive customers and their fleet management.
In a message to customers on Thursday, CDK said an additional cyberattack that occurred late Wednesday could result in a prolonged outage.
“At this time, the expected time for the issue to be resolved is unknown, therefore dealers’ systems will be unavailable until at least Thursday,” the message said.
CDK said its customer support team “remains unavailable” as a precaution to maintain security.
When contacted by TechCrunch, CDK spokesperson Lisa Finney confirmed the second incident and another shutdown of “most of our systems.”
“We are working with third-party experts to assess the impact and providing regular updates to customers. We remain committed to resuming service as quickly as possible and enabling our dealerships to return to business as usual,” Finney said.
The company’s website says its software is in operation at about 15,000 dealerships.
News of the cyberattack broke early Wednesday morning, with auto dealers reporting an outage to their dealer management systems, run by CDK, which handle customer reservations, vehicle records and other information. Several CDK customers posted on social media and Reddit that the outage forced staff to find workarounds that didn’t rely on the downed software.
CDK did not describe the nature of the first cyberattack but said it shut down all of its systems on Wednesday. Some CDK functions began to be restored Wednesday afternoon, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the ongoing cyberattack. It is unclear if and how the second cyberattack is related to the first.
CDK did not respond to TechCruch’s specific questions about the incident, including whether it was aware that data had been leaked from its systems, and it is not yet clear whether the company can determine whether any customer data was stolen.
Updated June 20th at 1pm ET based on latest statement from CDX.
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