AI thwarts ransomware attack at Wichita Falls car dealership

WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Car dealerships nationwide have been disrupted after a ransomware attack last week targeted the industry’s leading retail software provider, CDK Global. The attack is affecting nearly 15,000 car dealerships nationwide as they struggle to provide customer services.

CDK Global works with dealerships, which rely on the company to help register vehicles, apply factory rebates, manage inventory, and complete sales contracts, among other tasks.
According to Bloomberg, hackers request tens of millions in ransom to restore CDK’s operations.

Though many dealerships are struggling because of this, here in Wichita Falls, COO of Foundation Automotive Group, Chris Godwin, says his company’s business operations dodged the blow because of an AI company and encourages other dealerships to utilize it.

“ICOM AI communicates with those customers, especially when businesses closed down or after hours, and because they work directly with CDK Global, they were able to get those same customer inquiries and send them to us directly, which was zero interruption to our business,” Godwin said.

He added that other dealers should contact their partners and vendors for real-time updates to avoid interrupting consumers’ purchase experience.

Foundation Automotive ensures that customer information is safe and has not been breached.

Though Foundation Automotive was lucky not to have operations halted, that has not been the case for many other dealerships. Incidents like these highlight the importance of taking proper cybersecurity measures.

COO Chris Godwin says that CDK Global has been in constant contact with him. The company is working diligently to find out how this attack happened and protect all consumers from it happening again.