Tech Tips

Strengthen Your Cyber Defences in 2026 | 

Every dealership requires uninterrupted access to data and IT systems for virtually every part of their operation—stock control, sales, service bookings, payroll, financial reporting, customer communication, and compliance. This dependence means even a short outage can cascade into lost revenue, reputational damage, and major business disruption. Even fines.

With cyberattacks becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, and more automated, every dealership—large or small—needs a clear, layered protection strategy. The goal isn’t to eliminate risk (that’s impossible) but to harden the business enough that incidents are detected early, damage is minimised, and recovery is fast and predictable.

Below are the most important defence measures every dealership should prioritise in 2026.

1. Treat data loss as a business risk, not an IT problem.

Many dealerships assume their backups will work when disaster strikes—right up until they need them. Incomplete or corrupted backups are far more common than most people realise. A proper backup strategy should include:

• Hourly on-site backups of your entire server environment
• Daily encrypted off-site backups stored for months or years
• Automated monitoring so failed backups are detected and fixed early

This approach eliminates risky, outdated habits like relying on USB drives or staff-driven manual routines. It also ensures business continuity: if a server fails, or even if the dealership is hit by fire, flood, or ransomware, operations can be restored to a remote environment within hours—not weeks.

2. Most attacks happen after hours. Plan for that.

Attackers don’t work business hours. In fact, most serious incidents occur late at night or on weekends, when no one is watching. By Monday morning, the damage is often done—encrypted data, compromised credentials, or systems already offline.

That’s why 24/7 threat monitoring and response is becoming essential. Modern Managed Detection & Response (MDR) services combine AI-driven threat detection with real human analysts who watch your network day and night. They investigate anomalies, contain active threats, and neutralise attacks within minutes.

This constant vigilance closes the dangerous gap between an attack starting and someone discovering it. For dealerships, it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to strengthen their security posture.

3. Strengthen your defences against human error.

While cyberattacks make headlines, the biggest cause of system compromise is still staff behaviour: clicking malicious links, opening unsafe attachments, visiting compromised sites, or assuming backups “just work.”

Dealers can reduce this risk dramatically with:

• Email filtering that blocks ransomware and phishing before staff even see it
• Least-privilege access, so users only access the data they genuinely need
• Automated backups, removing the need for staff involvement
• Continuous monitoring, where experts review suspicious activity immediately

Training staff is important, but layered protection turns mistakes into manageable events instead of full-blown crises.

4. Build operational redundancy into your disaster plan.

Dealerships often underestimate the operational chaos caused by a system outage. Without access to your DMS and supporting systems, you lose the ability to:

• Write deals
• Check stock or parts pricing
• View service histories
• Process payments
• Schedule work
• Run end-of-day or end-of-month actions
• Communicate with customers

A good redundancy plan includes at least one encrypted off-site backup location, clear retention policies, and the ability to spin up temporary cloud-based systems if the dealership is physically impacted. This ensures you can keep working while waiting for replacement hardware or repairs.

Running a restoration test once a year is also crucial—it’s the only way to confirm your recovery plan actually works.

5. Monitor the entire IT environment, not just servers.

Threats don’t always enter through the obvious door. They can originate from:

• Workstations
• Remote access tools
• Third-party integrations
• Outdated operating systems
• Poorly configured firewalls

Continuous network-wide monitoring ensures threats are identified wherever they appear, rather than relying on point solutions that only protect individual machines. Combined with robust backup practices, this gives dealerships a strong defence against both opportunistic and targeted attacks.