Scourge · June 19 2024

The Scourge of the Car Dealers

Chronicle

On 19 June 2024 BlackSuit ransomware hit CDK Global, whose software runs about 15,000 car dealerships in North America. CDK shut down its systems, and that same evening, during recovery, a second incident forced a fresh shutdown. For about two weeks dealers went back to pen and paper for sales, financing and service. Anderson Economic Group estimated dealers' direct losses at over $1 billion.

Lesson learned

It showed how whole industries depend on a single management-software vendor, and that restarting too quickly after an attack can reopen the door to the attackers.

Prayer of reparation

O BlackSuit, who stalled a continent's car sales, leave our management systems in peace and teach us not to switch everything back on before every door is shut. Amen.

How it is remembered

Remembered by keeping manual fallback procedures for sales and service, asking vendors for credible continuity plans and restoring systems only after cleaning them.