Following the hacker organization ShinyHunters’ allegation that it had stolen the personal information of over 500 million Ticketmaster customers, the company stated in a federal filing on Friday that it was investigating a data breach.
Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, filed a statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it had discovered activity within a third-party cloud database environment that was unauthorized.
The hack attack was carried out by ShinyHunters, a cyber-threat organization that was created around 2020.
Cybersecurity expert Brett Callow of Emsisoft called the organization a credible threat actor, but other than that, not much was known about them.
U.S. Department of Justice officials announced in January that Sebastien Raoult, a 22-year-old French citizen and member of ShinyHunters, had been found guilty of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Raoult was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution.
It seems like getting people’s private information and selling it is its primary goal.
According to federal authorities, it has victimized several corporations in the US and abroad, including Microsoft and AT&T.
The hack, which AT&T disclosed in a March news release, impacted approximately 70 million current and former customers.
A snapshot of the post that Callow uploaded shows that the gang boasted about having the personal details, including credit card numbers and ticket sales, of 560 million Ticketmaster consumers.
The organization said the data was 1.3 gigabytes in size and advertised it for $500,000.
When precisely the breach had taken place was unclear.
As per Ticketmaster’s disclosure to the public, the business initially discovered unauthorized activity on May 20.
The corporation has alerted law authorities and is working with them as they strive to reduce risk to consumers and the business.
According to Live Nation’s filing, the company concluded that the breach would not significantly affect its business operations, financial situation, or results of operations.
This is the most recent incident that has brought Ticketmaster into disrepute.
The government claimed that Live Nation was maintaining an unlawful monopoly over the live entertainment sector, so on May 23, the Justice Department sued the corporation, asking a federal court to dissolve it.
Live Nation says the government’s claims are “baseless.”
