Thought Leadership
Data from over half a billion users of the ticket provider Ticketmaster has allegedly been up for sale since Tuesday evening. Ticketmaster also sells tickets for concerts in Germany, which is why German users would probably also be affected.
According to a report by the online magazine Hackread, the hacker group ShinyHunters has captured a total of 1.3 terabytes of data. These are offered on the “BreachForums”, the group’s notorious hacker forum, for 500,000 US dollars.
If confirmed, the scope of the leaked data makes this incident particularly critical: in addition to real names, addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers, credit card information such as the last four digits of the card number are also said to be included.
What users need to do now
It remains to be seen whether the incident definitely happened. An official statement from Ticketmaster is also still pending. It is also unclear whether users were informed about the incident. Nevertheless, anyone who has been a customer of the ticket platform in the past should beware of possible consequences:
“The amount of personal data that may have been affected in this security breach makes this incident particularly worrying for all involved. As the sensitive information is now for sale, those affected may need to be extremely careful,” advises Jake Moore, IT security expert at ESET. “The important thing now is to change passwords and ignore spam emails, text messages and calls that could follow. Incidents like these can have a devastating impact on users, including identity theft and financial fraud.”
Ticketmaster: No blank slate when it comes to IT security
As Hackread reports, this was not the first cyber security incident for the ticket provider: Last year, there was already a cyberattack on ticket sales for concerts by well-known singer Taylor Swift.
(vp/ESET Deutschland GmbH)
