AutoCanada suffered a cyberattack compromising its IT systems

Over the weekend, a hacker group conducted a cyberattack on AutoCanada. The company confirmed that the incident had impacted internal IT systems and potentially disrupted its standard operations.

AutoCanada is a significant car dealership operator with about 4,700 employees. It operates 66 franchised dealerships in Canada, representing 25 automobile manufacturers and another 18 franchises in the US.

The company claims that it acted immediately after becoming aware of the attack to protect its stored data and network. Moreover, the dealership contacted a third-party service provider to assist with containment and repair activities. However, the investigation into the event has yet to determine whether the attackers compromised any data.

Additionally, the exact scope, nature, and implications of the event, including the extent to which any customer, supplier, or staff data was accessed, are still a mystery. Still, the company assured everyone that they would disclose details of the event after finishing its investigation.

The corporation warns that the event may cause disruptions until the necessary systems are fully restored, even though business operations are currently open.

 

AutoCanada remained tight-lipped and has yet to address inquiries about the attack.

 

As of now, no ransomware gangs have claimed responsibility for the attack on AutoCanada. However, researchers noted that AutoCanada was also affected by CDK Global’s significant IT failure orchestrated by the BlackSuit ransomware attack.

Along with revealing the cyberattack yesterday, the corporation also released its second-quarter financial data, stating that several headwinds during the second quarter substantially affected its performance.

The CDK outage also factored in poor performance after disrupting the company’s operations, resulting in lost sales and profits; OEM inventory grew across the industry, causing higher days’ supply in critical brands, impacting floorplan costs, and rising unemployment.

Furthermore, AutoCanada lost $33.1 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to a profit of $45.2 million in the same quarter the previous year.

According to the firm, the CDK outage began in June and continued until the next month. Still, the recovery, validation, and cleanup process on the affected systems was completed at the end of the month.

Potentially affected individuals, especially customers, should be cautious about unsolicited communications since the hackers’ identities are still unknown.