Automotive retail software provider CDK Global said that it would likely take several days to fix its system after it was hacked last week. 

A spokesperson for the data provider told CNN Saturday (June 22) that it has begun restoring its software, saying that it would take "several days to complete," while continuing to "actively engage" its customers and provide them with alternative methods to become more productive in the interim.

It is understood that the outage affected almost 15,000 car dealerships across the United States and Canada and that the company was still working to investigate why its systems were compromised, forcing them to shut it down. 

Bloomberg reported that CDK was negotiating with an Eastern European-based hacker group that demanded tens of millions of dollars in ransom to restore the service.

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Dealerships Improvise While CDK is Offline

Meanwhile, many of the car manufacturers and dealerships affected by the CDK outage were forced to implement temporary solutions to keep themselves productive, with the Wall Street Journal highlighting that some dealerships were even using handwriting as one of the methods used.

The company advised dealership employees to be aware of phishing scams and take precautions to secure sensitive information like passwords. 

In a statement, National Automobile Dealers Association president and CEO Mike Stanton said that it was continuing to seek information from CDK "on the nature and scope" of the incident in order for dealers to respond appropriately. 

Separately, Reuters reported that CDK has begun to restore its systems to put it back online, while US auto retailers Sonic and Penske said that their operations took a hit since the outage.

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