Today, dealerships rely on their technology environment to sell and service cars and trucks. Dealership technology is mission critical to a dealership’s success. Yet many dealerships are still employing outdated IT strategies that can jeopardize their business as technology quickly advances and cybersecurity threats evolve. An increasingly crucial decision that dealerships must make is whether … Read more
Dealership cybersecurity challenges in 2024 Published January 3, 2024 Heighten liability risks for dealerships leave them vulnerable to legal action if any cybersecurity prevention falls short of the new FTC requirements. Dealerships are also watching their cyber insurance coverage costs soar at the same time insurers are scaling back protections as they try to rein … Read more
To mitigate the risk of a successful, cyberattack, dealerships must address the most common sources of an attack—unpatched security vulnerabilities, human error, and malware. In this blog, we’re going to focus on the human error component. According to the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigation Report, nearly three-quarters of data breaches involve the actions of individuals … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Safeguards Rule and cyber liability insurance requirements are putting immense pressure on auto dealerships to secure their sensitive data. Seeking an easy, inexpensive solution, many have been tempted by the allure of a “magic pill.” But here’s the stark truth: there is no such thing. A prime example of this … Read more
Many dealerships have been falsely led to believe that FTC compliance can be satisfied with checklists and self-assessments completed by those with limited – if any – technical cybersecurity training and expertise. This is not the case and the consequences of this approach to cybersecurity, FTC compliance, and in securing cyber liability insurance can be … Read more
Update, October 2026: Windows 10 support ended on October 14, 2025, and paid Extended Security Updates Year 1 for business PCs ends October 13, 2026. For current dates, costs, and a store-by-store plan, read our Windows 10 Extended Security Updates action plan for dealerships. Microsoft has announced that support for Windows 10 will end on … Read more
Dealerships face challenges when it comes to securely receiving customer files. Often, employees ask customers to send files via text, email, or other unsecured methods. This will violate the new FTC Safeguards Rule’s regulations regarding the secure transfer, storage, and restricted access of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). However, there’s an easy solution to this problem … Read more
As the incidence, severity, and sophistication of today’s cyber threats continues to grow, the appropriate use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming increasingly important. Add to this that new government regulations – like the FTC Safeguards Rule – now requires that businesses implement MFA. The result is a lot of confusion, inefficiency, and quite frankly … Read more
The cyber liability insurance market is in turmoil. Insurers found themselves exposed to a significant increase in the volume and severity of ransomware attacks that they didn’t foresee. As a result, cyber insurers have experienced record losses. This has led to a hardening of the cyber liability insurance market where insurers are now providing less … Read more