Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
– Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, acknowledged a cybersecurity incident five days after a hacker advertised selling company data.
– The breach could involve up to 560 million customer records.
Entertainment giant Ticketmaster, under its parent company Live Nation, recently admitted to a cybersecurity incident following a hacker’s offer to sell massive amounts of company data. The incident was discovered on May 20 when unauthorized activity was detected in a third-party cloud database environment containing company data. Despite not confirming the authenticity of the stolen data, cybersecurity researchers believe that some of the data being offered for sale is legitimate. The breach, possibly involving 560 million customer records, has raised concerns and led to cooperation with law enforcement agencies. This incident comes at a time when Ticketmaster is facing a civil antitrust lawsuit for monopolization and other unlawful conduct that inhibits competition in the live entertainment industry.
The hacker, known as ShinyHunters, claimed responsibility for targeting Ticketmaster and is also selling data on customers of the bank Santander. The breach, which may be connected to breaches at up to 400 other companies, involved stolen credentials of an employee at Snowflake, a cloud storage and services company. Snowflake has taken steps to address the unauthorized access, emphasizing that there was no malicious activity within their product. The Australian government and various cybersecurity agencies are engaging with Ticketmaster to investigate the incident further. As the investigation continues, it is essential for Ticketmaster and other companies to strengthen their cybersecurity measures to prevent future breaches.
