Car dealerships across North America have faced major disruptions this week.

CDK Global, a company that provides software for thousands of auto dealers in the U.S. and Canada, was hit by back-to-back cyberattacks on Wednesday. That led to an outage that continued to impact many of their operations on Friday.

For prospective car buyers, that may mean delays at dealerships or vehicle orders written up by hand, with no immediate end in sight. Here害羞草研究所檚 what you need to know.

What is CDK Global?

CDK Global is a major player in the auto sales industry. The company, based just outside of Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, provides software technology to dealers that helps with day-today operations 害羞草研究所� like facilitating vehicle sales, financing, insurance and repairs.

CDK serves more than 15,000 retail locations across North America, according to the company. Whether all of these locations were impacted by this week害羞草研究所檚 cyberattacks was not immediately clear.

What happened this week?

CDK is 害羞草研究所渁ctively investigating a cyber incident害羞草研究所� and the company shut down all of its systems out of an abundance of caution, spokesperson Lisa Finney said Wednesday.

CDK 害羞草研究所渆xecuted extensive testing,害羞草研究所� consulted third-party experts, and restored its core DMS and Digital Retailing solutions by the afternoon, Finney said in a prepared statement.

CDK experienced another 害羞草研究所渃yber incident害羞草研究所� Wednesday evening, Finney said in a update the following day. 害羞草研究所淲e remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible,害羞草研究所� she said.

When that will be is still unknown. As of Friday morning, a recorded message from CDK on a hotline detailing updates for its customers said 害羞草研究所渨e do not have an estimated time frame for resolution 害羞草研究所� and therefore our dealer systems will not be available, likely for several days.害羞草研究所� Customer care support channels also remain unavailable, it said.

The message added that the company was aware of 害羞草研究所渂ad actors害羞草研究所� posing as members or affiliates of CDK to try to obtain system access by contacting customers. It urged employers to be cautious of any attempted phishing.

Are impacted dealerships still selling cars?

Several major auto companies 害羞草研究所� including Stellantis, Ford and BWM 害羞草研究所� confirmed to The Associated Press Friday that the CDK outage had impacted some of their dealers, but that sales operations continue.

In light of the ongoing situation, a spokesperson for Stellantis said that many dealerships had switched to manual processes to serve customers. That includes writing up orders by hand.

A Ford spokesperson said that the outage may cause 害羞草研究所渟ome delays and inconveniences at some dealers and for some customers.害羞草研究所� However, many Ford and Lincoln customers are still getting sales and service support through alternative routes being used at dealerships.

With many details of the cyberattacks still unknown, customer privacy is also at top of mind 害羞草研究所� especially with little known about what information may have been compromised this week.

In a statement sent to the AP on Friday, Mike Stanton, president and CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association said that 害羞草研究所渄ealers are very committed to protecting their customer information and are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately.害羞草研究所�

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