Can't be a negative but hard to prove it'll be a positive.
Morning Brew
Imagine if Google Workspace or Microsoft Teams crashed, but you still had to go on with your workday. Well, that’s the vibe at car dealers across the US this week: Following back-to-back cyberattacks on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, one of the auto industry’s most popular softwares is temporarily shut down, leaving workers no choice but to record orders with pen and paper.
Hand cramps galore. It’s not clear how many dealerships have been affected or whether customer data has been stolen, but around 15,000 US car dealers—including General Motors and Group 1 Automotive sellers—use the hacked software company in question, CDK Global, to manage payroll, sales, operations, and pretty much everything else.
Some dealers have kept business rolling (albeit more slowly) despite not being able to access ongoing deals or customer info. The outage is worse where CDK services are integrated throughout daily operations. According to employees commiserating on Reddit…
- Some dealerships can’t even look up car parts, receive calls on work phones, or pay out earnings.
- One user described their place of work’s contingency plan as “everyone freaking out and writing sh*t down on sticky notes.”
The outage could last for several days, CNN reported. That could drag on summer car sales and the 3% to 3.5% of GDP that the US auto industry generates each year.—ML