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Many Windsor-Essex car dealerships were still closing deals with pen and paper this week after back-to-back cyberattacks against the U.S. company that provides their software systems. 

“That program runs all of our sales, accounting, service, and parts,” said Rony Brandi, a new car sales manager at Windsor Chrysler. “That software helps us keep our inventory. On the sales side, calculating payments. Same with service side, parts, everything.

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“It’s tough without the system. We can’t see our inventory in the system. We’re using different sources to price out vehicles. A little bit challenging. We’re pretty much doing old-school pen and paper.”  

The targeted company, CDK Global, provides software to roughly 15,000 dealerships across North America.  

Bloomberg News reported that a hacker group called BlackSuit perpetrated the cyberattack. The news outlet also reported the criminals made a ransom demand in the tens of millions of dollars, and that CDK Global was planning to pay. 

It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks that have had drastic fallout for several southwestern Ontario organizations. 

Patient data at five hospitals, including Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel-Dieu Grace, and Erie Shores HealthCare, was stolen in October after third-party agency Transform Shared Service Organization was targeted. The hospitals did not pay the ransom. 

In June 2022, hackers also hit the University of Windsor, which still refuses to provide details about the incident. Due to its secrecy on the issue, it is unknown if the university paid a ransom, what was hit or how many students and staff might have been affected. 

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The attack against car dealerships and CDK Global began June 19. It affected thousands of businesses across the U.S. and Canada, including multiple dealerships in the Windsor area. 

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, a national organization representing new car and truck dealers, would not comment to the Windsor Star. 

Alberta-based AutoCanada Inc., which owns about 75 dealerships including Rose City Ford, Audi Windsor, and Premier Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC, said in a statement this week that its dealer management systems were down. 

Those systems support operations including sales, service, inventory, and accounting. 

The company said it was still unknown how much customer or vendor data the “threat actor” may have accessed.  

“AutoCanada immediately took precautionary measures to protect our systems and is reviewing the potential impact of the incident, which efforts remain ongoing,” the company said. “We have not identified any compromise or unauthorized access to our systems.

“This incident has had, and is likely to continue to have, a negative impact on the company’s business operations until the relevant systems are fully restored. Our dealerships remain open, and we are continuing to sell and service vehicles, and otherwise serve our customers, through manual and alternative processes.” 

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Brandi also said it appears no customer information was compromised, but added that CDK has provided little information on that front.  

“It’s not real clear,” he said. 

The attack didn’t end with hackers breaking into the software systems. Brandi said CDK has warned its clients to be wary of people calling claiming to be company employees. 

“They said to us the system got hacked and there are people calling pretending to be CDK and trying to get personal information,” said Brandi. “You’ve got to be really careful.

“It’s a little dicey.” 

He said the dealership is still open, selling vehicles and taking service appointments, but things are taking longer than usual because they had to go analog until systems are restored.  

In the service department, they are hand-writing work orders. Pricing a vehicle takes half an hour. 

“Typically, to price out a vehicle, it takes a few minutes,” said Brandi. “Now that few minutes, times it by 10. 

“That main system is how we price out vehicles. Now we’re using different sources. We used to do everything in one shot where I can pull all my inventory up. Now to find a car, I have to physically go out, find the car, and run that VIN number through the Chrysler website to get the invoices and everything.

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“Before, it was the click of a button and I can calculate payments and whatnot.” 

Brandi said the dealership’s financing and leasing systems are separate from the affected software. 

To make up for the dip in sales caused by the cyberattack, and the headache for customers, he said Windsor Chrysler is running a sale on vehicles until Tuesday. The dealership sent out an email stating they are “writing deals with the good old pen, paper and a handshake. 

“We are discounting a little bit extra on the vehicles to make the month out for what we have lost in the last week,” he said. “My partner did the cyberattack email and we got some response.

“We had people show up. So that’s been good.” 

twilhelm@postmedia.com

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