Local dealerships are conducting customer transactions the old-fashioned way, in the fallout from a cyberattack on a widely used software provider. The company targeted by the attack, Illinois-based CDK Global, temporarily shut down most of its systems as a precaution. The effect has rippled to showrooms and service areas across the country, affecting about 15,000 auto dealerships that use CDK's services.
In many cases, dealership employees are handling sales and service transactions by hand, as a stopgap until CDK's automated systems are once again available to them. "Are (dealers) hindered? Absolutely," said Paul Stasiak, president of the Niagara Frontier Automobile Dealers Association. "Are they crippled? Absolutely not.
" Dealers say CDK has not provided a time frame for restoring service, so they are relying on old-fashioned methods in the interim. "It is a major hassle to try to operate without our computer systems working, but customers have been very understanding of delays that have been caused as we try to go back to the old-school ways of handwriting the documents needed to sell and service cars," said Frank Downing Jr., president of Towne Automotive Group.
"As always, we are trying to make the best out of a bad situation. "Almost every dealer in Buffalo uses CDK, so we are all working though this as best we can," Downing said. The disruption is also affecting West Herr, one of the nation's largest dealer groups.
Local dealers are coping with fallout from a cyberatt.
