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THE CONCERT BOOKING site Ticketmaster has confirmed that it was investigating a data breach after a hacking group known as ShinyHunters claimed to have accessed 560 million customers’ information.
The well-known hacking group posted evidence on May 27 of the hack on the dark web, according to a screenshot shared widely on social media.
The group demanded a ransom payment of $500,000, describing it as a “one-time sale,” according to the post.
Ticketmaster, a California-based company, operates one of the largest online ticket sales platforms in the world.
In filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, said it had “identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment.”
According to Ticketmaster’s public filing, the company first identified “unauthorized activity” on May 20, a week before the post on social media.
“We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement,” it said.
Ticketmaster added that the incident “has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations.”
The Australian government on Thursday said it was investigating the hacking claims, with the FBI offering its assistance.
ShinyHunters burst into notoriety in 2020-21 when it put up huge troves of customer records from more than 60 companies, according to the US Department of Justice.
In January, a court in Seattle jailed Sebastien Raoult, a French computer hacker who was a member ShinyHunters.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The US Department of Justice last week filed a major antitrust lawsuit seeking to break up an alleged monopoly held by Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary in the live music industry.
Ticketmaster’s pricing practices, with high fees and lack of alternatives, have long been a political issue in the United States, with little done historically to open up the market to more competition.
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Cost: $500,000
Service charge x2: $50,000
Handling fee: $20,000
Total: $620,000
@Greg Butler: probably a GAA loving, Taylor Swift fan trying to raise the price of a couple of tickets.
@Alan: probably you trying be “funny”..but it landed even worse than a bad Dad joke..lol at you
@UK Hurling Bloke: agreed . Weak humour. Must do better.
Is it a sub division of ticket master themselves demanding money? Since they are soo good at the rip off game.
@tiobraiddroicead:
So they don’t believe it will have a material impact on their business or financial performance, great. What about all of your customers data, user names, email, passwords??? What a narrow self focussed statement. Jokeshop
@Mark Murphy: These breaches can be a black mark for companies and people may avoid them because of it. It won’t though because they have a virtual monopoly and their name is already dirt.
They don’t think it will have a material impact on their business? Well, what if those 500m+ impacted users sued Ticketmaster for letting their data fall into the hands of criminals?
@Lewis Armstrong: They would probably argue that the advice of cybersecurity specialists is that you must do as much as possible to prevent breaches but despite best possible efforts you should expect breaches to happen and plan for recovery.
They would be right, unfortunately that’s how it is.
The US DOJ are engaged in antitrust legal proceedings to break up this effective monopoly.
Why have the Irish/Europeans not done so already?
It’s long been clear that their practices are mob-like.
Great them to shut it down.
The horrible gouging backstards should be disbanded
They’ll pay up then there’ll be a hacking fee for tickets in future to claim the money back.
What if the fact I bought tickets to see Westlife becomes public knowledge… My street credit is on the line. If anybody asks, I got them for a friend.
@jak: never let go Jak
@Modern Irish Dad: your flying without wings my friend, careful : )
@CP: that song is now stuck in my head lol
Theres more than Ticketmaster affected, Eir, Allianz and a few other companies as well. I’m surprised it hasn’t been in the media until now.
@Carol Hickey: would you care to quote your sources please? If this is true it must be out on some media that can be verified
Makes a change from Ticketmasters extorting everyone,
Make a change from ticket master ripping everyone else off…..pity the hackers didn’t get the bank details of the shareholders and clean them out
Am I correct in saying that there are no other competing companies to Ticketmaster? Are they a monopoly?
@Andrew Kenny: They have the rights on all major venues throughout Europe, the US and beyond. That is if you wanna play a big venue tickets have to be sold through them
@Andrew Kenny: If you have 10 minutes https://youtu.be/eZGx911oq9M?si=SgCw5YWe-hkz-0nJ
@Modern Irish Dad: Cheers for that
At last! A taste of their own medicine
Awesome company
@John D Doe: jasus you are back again awesome
@John D Doe: poor attempt troll
have your say