The data of more than 500 million people may have been stolen from ticket sales giants.
The ticket sales giant Ticketmaster has confirmed that it is investigating the huge data breach that targeted the company.
A group of hackers has said that they have gained access to the data of 560 million customers. The Australian government and the US Federal Police already said on Thursday that they are investigating the claims of the hacker group Shinyhunters.
On Monday, Shinyhunters said on the so-called dark web that it had stolen the names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card information of Ticketmaster customers. The group traded the information for $500,000.
Event giant Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees the US financial markets, that it has detected unauthorized activity in a third-party cloud database.
In the document submitted to the authorities, the company says that it first noticed unauthorized activity on May 20, i.e. a week before the hacker group announced its activities online.
Cooperates with the authorities
According to Ticketmaster, the event has not had a significant impact on, for example, the company’s business or financial position, and the company does not believe that there will be any impact either.
– We are working to reduce risks for our users and our company, the company said and added that it is cooperating with law enforcement authorities.
Shinyhunters gained notoriety in 2020-2021 when it stole and distributed customer data from more than 60 companies. A French hacker who was part of the group received a three-year prison sentence in the United States in January of this year, and was ordered to pay more than five million dollars in compensation for damages caused by data breaches.
Ticketmaster has long been criticized in the US for its dominant market position. Last week, the US Department of Justice and dozens of states sued the ticketing giant’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, with the goal of forcing the company to sell Ticketmaster.