Last Thursday, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. posted on X that it was “experiencing a cybersecurity incident” that was affecting some internal and customer-facing systems at cardlock and retail Co-op locations. It had shut down some systems as a precaution and had brought in experts, the company added.

Gas bars were relatively unaffected.

Some Co-op grocery inventories were affected by the incident.

“We are prioritizing key grocery items and consumer goods for delivery to local Co-ops,” Federated Co-op said on X yesterday.

There is no evidence customer data has been compromised, the company said.

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Brian Osterndorff, chair of the board of the Canadian Equipment Dealers Association, and president and CEO of Robert’s Farm Equipment, a seven-store group in Ontario, said on June 26 that they had just been informed that they could use the system again.

Tech firm CDK’s software was taken offline last week after a cyberattack by the BlackSuit ransomware group. CDK is being asked to pay tens of millions of dollars by the hackers. Reuters reported yesterday that the company expected dealers to be offline until at least June 30, but some dealers had functionality returned on June 26.

CDK provides business management software to dealers of all makes of farm equipment, so major dealers of John Deere, CNH and are working without digital systems across the country. CDK is also the leading provider of management software to automobile dealers and thousands of those dealerships are offline.

CDK says it has 15,000 North American dealers on its system.

Wawanesa, Man. farmer Jeff Elder said he was able to get what he needed on a recent parts run to the Rocky Mountain Equipment dealership in Brandon, however staff were relying on memory to find parts or looking them up on their phones.

“They had resorted to writing down orders on paper,” said Elder via text. “He couldn’t invoice me and said I would receive an invoice by email whenever they could get that done.”

Rocky Mountain Equipment declined to comment.

“Everything is being done manually,” said John Schmeiser, President of the North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA) Canada. “You can just imagine the amount of time that our dealerships are spending on manual processes.”

Parts are tracked and managed through digital inventory systems.

“We have to actually know where the part is, in, in a bin, to go out and find it and fulfill that customer’s order without using our computer system to tell us where it is or how many that we have on order.”

Invoicing also has to be manual, said Schmeiser.

Osterndorff said that looking up parts, connecting parts to work orders and completing sales couldn’t be accomplished using their digital system and staff had to do the work manually.

Farmers are spraying and preparing combines for harvest so dealers continue to work as best they can.

“We can’t shut down the business, we have to take care of the customer,” Schmeiser said. “Dealers are really managing through this as best as they possibly can.”

Osterndorff says they have a team of people coming to dig out from the past week’s paperwork and get that information into the digital system.

He says they’ve learned that dealerships can continue to function, “but I think it’s just increased awareness right now of the vulnerability that we all are all have, and the effect that it has in our business.”

Schmeiser said the situation will be a wake-up call for the industry and will place even more emphasis on cyber security.

“I think as an industry as a whole, this whole situation is going to be looked at, at every sector, from the manufacturer point of view and the equipment dealer,” he said.

“We’re asking our customers or farm customers to be a little bit patient with our dealers, as we work through this problem. This is this is an issue that is not only frustrating for our equipment dealers, but can be frustrating for our customers as well.”

—Updated June 27 – adds John Schmeiser’s title, organization.

The post Some farm dealerships back online after cyber attack appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“This is certainly completely disruptive to our equipment dealers that are using the CDK platform,” said John Schmeiser, president of the North American Equipment Dealers Association, Canada.

Tech firm CDK’s software was taken offline last week after a cyberattack by the BlackSuit ransomware group. CDK is being asked to pay tens of millions of dollars by the hackers. Reuters reports that the company expects dealers to be offline until at least June 30.

CDK provides business management software to dealers of all makes of farm equipment, so major dealers of John Deere, CNH and are working without digital systems across the country. CDK is also the leading provider of management software to automobile dealers and thousands of those dealerships are offline.

CDK says it has 15,000 North American dealers on its system.

Wawanesa, Man. farmer Jeff Elder said he was able to get the parts he needed at a Rocky Mountain Equipment dealership in Brandon, however staff were relying on memory to find parts or looking them up on their phones.

“They had resorted to writing down orders on paper,” said Elder via text. “He couldn’t invoice me and said I would receive an invoice by email whenever they could get that done.”

Rocky Mountain Equipment declined to comment.

“Everything is being done manually,” said Schmeiser. “You can just imagine the amount of time that our dealerships are spending on manual processes.”

Parts are tracked and managed through digital inventory systems.

“We have to actually know where the part is, in, in a bin, to go out and find it and fulfill that customer’s order without using our computer system to tell us where it is or how many that we have on order.”

Invoicing also has to be manual, said Schmeiser.

Equipment can be sold, but the process is manual and inventory isn’t available on a computer system. Tracking orders is also challenging.

Farmers are spraying and preparing combines for harvest so dealers continue to work as best they can.

“We can’t shut down the business, we have to take care of the customer,” Schmeiser said. “Dealers are really managing through this as best as they possibly can.”

Schmeiser said the situation will be a wake up call for the industry and will place even more emphasis on cyber security.

“I think as an industry as a whole, this whole situation is going to be looked at, at every sector, from the manufacturer point of view and the equipment dealer,” he said.

“We’re asking our customers or farm customers to be a little bit patient with our dealers, as we work through this problem. This is this is an issue that is not only frustrating for our equipment dealers, but can be frustrating for our customers as well.”

—Headline updated June 26.

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“We are working at full speed to analyse the effects of the attack with the support of specialists and in cooperation with the State Office of Criminal Investigation and to set up a new IT infrastructure,” said LEMKEN Group CEO Anthony van der Ley in a news release today.

“According to initial detailed analyses, our customers’ data is not affected as our security systems were very effective,” he added.

The attack happened on Saturday, May 11, the company said. It affects all LEMKEN locations worldwide. The company’s IT systems are shut down and production is stopped.

LEMKEN said it already had cyber defense mechanisms and emergency plans in place, and it expects to be able to restart some of its systems “in a few days.”

“Of course, we will still be severely hampered in our day-to-day business over the next few days. We therefore hope for the understanding of our customers, business partners and suppliers for any inconvenience,” said van der Ley.

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