Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, can’t seem to catch a break lately. Hacking group ShinyHunters has now claimed to have hacked Ticketmaster, siphoning off personal data from more than 560 million customers. According to reports from HackRead, ShinyHunters posted on a hacking forum this week that it had breached the ticket seller and made off with more than 1.3 terabytes of stolen data in a massive Ticketmaster hack.
The data stolen in this massive breach includes full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, ticket sales data, event details, partial payment information, and other order info. The breach, if confirmed, could have major implications for the users whose data was stolen. There’s enough information here to give bad actors enough ammo for cyber attackers, financial fraud, and possibly even identity theft, depending on who gets their hands on the information.
This Ticketmaster hack is obviously a huge disaster for any users who have used Ticketmaster in the past. If you currently have a Ticketmaster account and have used a credit or debit card on it, I’d recommend keeping an eye on your statements going forward or maybe even getting the card replaced so that you don’t have a card tied to that account anymore.
This isn’t ShinyHunters’ first foray into hacking, either. The group is actually well-known for its previous high-profile breaches, including stealing data from Microsoft, AT&T, and Wishbone. While Ticketmaster hasn’t confirmed the breach just yet, it’s still a good idea to change any information you might have tied to Ticketmaster, including your password. It’s also worth changing the password for your affected email, just as an added safety measure.
Of course, this isn’t Ticketmaster’s first run-in with cybersecurity issues, either. The ticket seller has previously been disrupted by bots when selling high-profile tickets, and it was even found guilty of hacking into a rival company to obtain confidential information. This Ticketmaster hack is just the latest in a growing line of bad news surrounding the seller.
None of this even considers the fact that Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, were sued by the U.S. Justice Department last week for monopolizing the markets across the live concert industry. Ticketmaster has always been a bit shady. If you reap what you sow, then it seems time for the company to bring in its harvest. Unfortunately, it’s the innocent customers forced to use the system to purchase tickets who will be most affected.
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