Ticketek, an Australian ticketing platform, and Ticketmaster, a subsidiary of Live Nation, have been hit by cyber incidents involving the theft of personal information, including names, dates of birth, and email addresses, from third-party cloud-based platforms.
Cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed to be behind the breach and to be in possession of personal data from over 500 million accounts. The group is offering to sell the data on the dark web.
Live Nation is investigating the data breach, cooperating with law enforcement, and taking steps to mitigate risks to users, but the breach is not expected to have a significant impact on the company's business or finances.
The data breach may be linked to attacks against company accounts with cloud hosting provider Snowflake, and the incident could lead to scams involving fake ticket sales, exposing individuals in the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster on May 23, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America, and a consumer class action lawsuit is seeking $5 billion in damages against the companies.
Australian authorities are aware of the Ticketek cyber incident and are advising Australians to remain vigilant against potential scams and phishing emails and to enhance their online security measures.
Sources: The Guardian, CBS, Independent, Wired, Sky News, New York Times
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
