Ticketmaster confirms data hack which could affect up to 560m around world
The ShinyHunters hacking group is said to be demanding around £400,000 in a ransom payment to prevent the data being sold
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Ticketmaster has been the subject of a cyber attack, with hackers allegedly offering to sell data about hundreds of millions of customers on the dark web. The ShinyHunters hacking group is reportedly demanding around £400,000 in a ransom payment to prevent the data being sold.
The group gained access to the names, addresses, phone numbers and partial payment details of 560 million of the site’s customers, it has been reported.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation said: “On 20 May 2024, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. identified unauthorised activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing company data (primarily from its Ticketmaster LLC subsidiary) and launched an investigation with industry-leading forensic investigators to understand what happened.
“On 27 May 2024, a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be company user data for sale via the dark web.
“We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the Company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement.
“As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorised access to personal information.”
The company added: “As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations. We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing.”
According to reports, authorities in Australia and the US are engaging with Ticketmaster to understand and respond to the incident.
The online ticket sales platform and Live Nation have been approached for comment.
Santander suffered a similar data breach this week, with the bank confirming on Friday that hackers had accessed data relating to all its staff and millions of overseas customers.