CDK’s Ransom

The cybercriminal group, Blacksuit, is responsible for a cyberattack on a nationwide software used by many car dealerships. The company, CDK Global, operates what is called a DMS or dealer management system.

This system allows car dealerships to run billing and print financial reports, submit repair orders, and ratify bill of sales and contracts. The sudden loss and ongoing disruption of this important software is certainly to effect these businesses for years.

Unfortunately as a side effect for the company itself, they are unable to input any ongoing data into the system until this is resolved. This will create a substantial backlog that will force dealerships to resubmit their information to get everything up to date.

With it’s hands tied, CDK must either pay these attackers a ransom or submit and ‘restart’ their product with new software on top of losing business.

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Terrible Lessons Hard Earned

With CDK’s software estimated to still be five days from being operational, the pressure mounts from stacking loss of business to its customers. It is important for any other business owners or security specialists to see the gravity of this issue.

Another issue arises from this as well, other competitors or businesses will always see this attack on the companies reputation. This is seen in many other incidents as getting users to trust your product again can be quite challenging.

It’s important to remember however that we can proactively help our teams prevent attacks like this. Steady reminders, red teaming, and constant vigilance at the user level is always the pinnacle of protection.