Major dealership groups disrupted by June cyberattacks

Lingering effects from recent cyberattacks targeting the retail automotive sector have already started to emerge, with multiple dealership groups reporting varying degrees of impact.

Here’s what key dealership groups across the country are experiencing.

Findlay Automotive Group: A June 10 cyberattack unrelated to the CDK Global outage continues to keep Findlay Automotive Group’s systems offline, hampering its service and sales operations. Two lawsuits have now been filed against the company, alleging it failed to keep customer data private. The dealership group has yet to offer any details in regards to the incident, making it unclear whether consumer information was actually exposed.

Public dealership groups: Six publicly traded auto retailers have now shared details with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision about the impact of CDK Global’s shutdown on their operations. Although a more precise estimation of the damage may have to wait until the end of the month, each brand offered differing expectations on what the consequences would look like, with some uncertain if they would even sustain any meaningful damage.

Penske Automotive Group used a different DMS provider for its main operations, but did rely on CDK to run its Premier Truck Group subsidiary. While not entirely unscathed, the company is much better off than some of its competitors, and doesn’t expect to see a major hit to its finances.

Sonic Automotive has kept its dealerships open throughout the outage, using workarounds to manage operations without a DMS. Nevertheless, the company is expecting a “negative impact” on its performance. Following news of the attack, the retailer also claims to have implemented “containment steps” to keep its customers' data safe. Whether it was successful remains unclear.

AutoNation, one of the largest dealership groups, said that its storefronts have continued to conduct business since the CDK shutdown began, using alternative methods to keep things running. However, the company claims the cyberattack has been “disruptive” and expects adverse impacts on its productivity.

Group 1 declined to share concrete expectations toward the CDK cyberattack, saying the severity of the impact would depend on how long the outage lasts. However, like most of its competitors, the dealership group remains open for business.

Similarly, Lithia also refused to speculate, saying it had “not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact” operations.

Asbury Automotive relied on CDK’s systems but only at certain locations, leaving some of its dealerships to function normally. However, while it too has yet to gauge the impact of the outage, it noted that business was running slow in areas affected by the outage.

Bottom line: The impacts of this month’s cyberattacks aren’t yet fully clear. That being said, while they operate at a larger scale, the experiences of big dealership groups often reflect those of independent retailers to an extent, making this early data critical for those looking for insights into their own business.

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