Hacking group claims to have stolen the personal data of 560 million Ticketmaster users
Hacking group ShinyHunter says it has stolen the personal data of 560 million Ticketmaster users.
The total amount of data that the group is said to have in its possession following the hack is 1.3 terabytes. It includes customer information such as names, addresses and email addresses, as well as credit card information, said to include details including expiration dates and the last four digits of credit card numbers.
ShinyHunters has put the data up for sale for a price of $500,000 via BreachForums, the dark web platform that the hacking group set up in 2022, with the suggestion put forward that Ticketmaster should pay the price as a ransom to avoid the information being sold on to other parties.
Ticketmaster has not yet commented on the alleged data breach.
If the data breach is indeed verified, it could represent the largest-ever hacking operation since 560 million people will have been affected, and such important personal information will have been stolen.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, is currently being sued by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), which has alleged that the company is engaged in “unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States”.
The DOJ’s anti-trust investigations into Live Nation-Ticketmaster, which merged in 2010, have been ongoing since 2018, with the 2022 Taylor Swift Eras tour ticketing controversy and multiple fan-led class action lawsuits against Ticketmaster refocusing the spotlight on its practices and market reach.
Songkick, a concert discovery tool, sued Live Nation-Ticketmaster in 2015 over anticompetitive behaviour. Live Nation settled the lawsuit for $100 million in 2018.
