CLEVELAND — Dozens of Northeast Ohio car dealerships are feeling the impacts of a cyberattack on their systems.
An initial cyberattack eight days ago on CDK Global, the company many dealerships rely on to operate their internal systems, is slowing dealers down and creating a mounting pile of work to do once the system is fixed.
According to the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers' Association (GCADA), around 60% of new car dealerships in Northeast Ohio use CDK Global for daily operations, sales and servicing.
Last Wednesday, employees of car dealerships across the U.S. walked into work to discover they couldn't log onto their systems, and in Northeast Ohio, GCADA President Lou Vitantonio's phone began to ring with calls from concerned dealers.
Vitantonio has been providing guidance for local dealerships, but he says there is still a lot of confusion surrounding what caused the attack. He says not much is changing for consumers, but dealerships are having to take down all customer information by hand and make sure that sensitive information is extremely secure.
“We’re doing a lot of stuff on paper and then we’re gonna ultimately have to enter it," said Vitantonio. "I think it’s going to take a little bit of time, because think, we’ve got eight days worth of work so far, and it’s gonna take some time in addition to going forward, we’re gonna still have to be selling and servicing.”
Once CDK Global fully addresses and resolves the cyberattack, dealerships will have to go an type in all the information they collected on paper. It's unclear how those dealerships will handle the added workload.
A spokesperson for CDK Global told NBC News the cyberattack was a crime of financial gain. However, Vitantonio and dealerships nationwide are in the dark on who is responsible.