Latest hack could expose your personal info

Craig Andres
·2 min read
4

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Another big hack and ransomware. This one impacts car dealerships all over the country, including Kansas.

“In these ransomware cases, you have to do forensic analysis against your backups because you have to find out when these people gained access,” said cybersecurity expert Bill Ramsey. “How long ago? They could have been in the system for months.”

Ramsey is talking about the CDK incident from this week.

CDK is a global software provider that is a clearinghouse of information for car dealerships.

And experts say the breach could include your personal information.

“So if you have purchased a vehicle through anybody company that uses CDK, which is the one who experienced the breach, that information may be in jeopardy,” said Ramsey.

Cyberattack disrupts operations at car dealerships across US: What we know

While car dealerships continue business, some say there is a lot of old-school paperwork being used instead of computer software to make deals happen for now.

“We’ve been with them in the past, but we’re no longer with them,” said Assistant Used Car Manager Mike Wildeman at Donovan Truck and Auto of Wichita of the CDK software system. “But, yeah, it pretty much controls all of your internal stuff that you need to create a deal, track inventory. All your paperwork and all your logistics stuff within a dealership. A ton of information, not just vehicle information but customer information because that all gets in to put the deal together.”

Ramsey says personal information is available to hackers. And as of Friday night, Bloomberg is reporting that CDK will consider paying a ransom to open the system back up again.

“This is still going to take some time. So even if they pay the ransom, all that’s doing is saying, ‘hey, we are going to give you a key to un-encrypt your stuff,'” said Ramsey. “And we are going to promise you that we are not going to release this information to the dark web.”

Ramsey says if your personal info has been exposed, you could get an email letting you know of the breach.

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