Cyberattacks on auto retailers are moving faster with AI, and dealers can no longer assume their IT provider has them covered. Cox Automotive is investigating a hacking group’s claim of data theft at VinSolutions, and today brought reports of a record $6.3 billion theft from crypto exchange Binance.
On today’s edition of CBT Live, Mike Perkins, Chief Information Security Officer at NorthRock Cybersecurity, joined hosts Jim Fitzpatrick and Bridget Fitzpatrick to discuss those recent incidents and what dealers need to do now to protect their stores.
Industry insiders have nicknamed October Black October because of the string of incidents, Perkins said. A dealer can pay a regulatory fine and recover, but customer trust cannot be bought back, he said. Dealers should run what Perkins calls a cybersecurity pressure test, which simulates an employee clicking on something they should not, instead of taking an IT provider’s word that they are secure. IT teams install controls, and letting them grade their own work is like letting a student grade their own SAT, he said. About 90% of the problems a third party finds are internal.
Business email compromise is the largest source of business loss right now, ahead of ransomware, Perkins said. Attackers take over a mailbox and send messages that appear to come from legitimate suppliers and dealers, so catching them within seconds is critical, he said. AI lets attackers test stolen credentials at millions per second around the clock, which turns a dealer into a name on a list, he said. For one fix this week, Perkins said to start with passwords stored in browsers or taped to monitors.
Dealers also need a fail-back plan for a vendor outage, since the CDK outage showed that a dealer can lose the ability to operate when its technology provider is attacked, Perkins said. Cyber insurance deserves a close read too. Sub-limits and exclusions can shrink a $5 million policy to $250,000 for a specific type of event, and many insurers have not updated their underwriting for AI, he said.
