Ticketmaster has stated that the company’s UK division has experienced a major security breach this past weekend from a third-party supplier. The Ticketmaster hack reportedly included personal and payment information for over 40,000 customers in the United Kingdom. The company Tweeted that malicious software caused the hack on the third-party support product Inbenta Technologies. All customer accounts that were affected have been contacted through email which states that the breach likely affected customers who purchased or attempted to purchase tickets between February and June 23, 2018. As a precaution, the email also informed international customers who had or tried to purchase tickets between last September 2017 and this June. Customers in North American have not been affected at all said the email.
The data that may have been stolen includes names, addresses, and email addresses, as well as telephone numbers, payment details, and log-in details for Ticketmaster.com. It is mentioned that customers affected should contact their banks and credit card companies to alert them of possible future fraud charges. Ticketmaster stated in the email that a website has been set up to answer any questions and to help users reset their passwords. In addition, Ticketmaster is offering users a 12-month identity monitoring service free of charge. In order to figure out how the data was obtained, Ticketmaster claims that “forensic teams and security experts are working around the clock” and are “working with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), as well as credit card companies, banks and relevant authorities.” “Ticketmaster understands the importance of your personal information,” the statement said. “We take the protection of that information very seriously and we are sorry to have to write to you in these circumstances.”
According to BBC, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, which is a division of the General Data Protection Regulation (GCHQ), said it was monitoring the situation. A spokesman added that the NCSC is working with its partners to understand the incident. Although Ticketmaster’s parent Live Nation declared it has 86 million customers in its recent annual report, a spokeswoman was unable to obtain a figure for Ticketmaster’s total number of clients in the UK. “After an incident like this, criminals from around the world will jump at the chance to try and catch a few unsuspecting people out,” Brooks Wallace from the cyber-security specialist Trusted Knight told BBC. “If you receive any emails purporting to be from Ticketmaster asking for any personal information, discard them. If you need to contact Ticketmaster, type the website address into your browser and log-in that way.”
If you’ve purchased from Ticketmaster UK, you may want to check with them to see if your customer data was stolen.
Posted by William David