Cyber attack on car dealership Arnold Clark forces systems offline

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Car dealership Arnold Clark has confirmed the corporation was strike by a cyber attack past month.

The company reported that it has managed to secure its customers’ information as well as its programs and third-party partners. Nonetheless, bringing down its network has prompted a short-term disruption to its enterprise and clients.

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“Our external security partners have now been undertaking an comprehensive evaluation of our total IT network and infrastructure, which is a mammoth endeavor, and they are supplying steering to our IT workforce on the re-enabling of our network and systems in a safe and sound, safe and phased fashion,” the organization said.

Arnold Clark’s Twitter account communicated that the dealership was going through technological issues affecting its units and telephones. It apologised to consumers and notified them it was trying to resolve the complications, asking them to immediate information its account on Twitter or email them for any queries as a substitute.

Showrooms and branches are now open and the company can provide consumers through a temporary system until its comprehensive units have been restored. Customer auto collections are predicted to be resumed later on this week.

The firm uncovered this week that it was initially notified by its exterior cyber security consultants of suspicious targeted traffic on its network on 23 December. 

Arnold Clark took steps internally to affirm the report with its cyber team and then decided to choose down its network voluntarily. It termed this a “purely protective measure”, which led it to cut its connectivity to the internet, its dealerships, and 3rd-party connections.

“Based on the info out there, it seems like Arnold Clark was ready to detect the attack by way of its security support service provider and disrupt it ahead of it place any information at risk,” said Mark Lamb, CEO at HighGround to IT Pro. “This was a incredibly favourable phase and it displays that Arnold Clark by now had a potent security posture in place that proactively monitored for threats, so they could be determined and remediated in advance of they brought about damage.

“While it doesn’t look like Arnold Clark’s IT is totally again up and functioning, the company does surface to have protected its data and clients, which is unquestionably the most significant issue.”

UK-centered car or truck dealership Pendragon was also hit by a cyber attack in Oct 2022 by the LockBit ransomware team. The organization confirmed it experienced been hit by an IT security incident but that its capability to operate wasn’t afflicted. Pendragon also stated that it would refuse to pay out the $60 million (£53 million) ransom that the attackers demanded and instead restore from backups.