Half-billion Ticketmaster customer accounts breached, hackers claim

Just a few weeks after an extensive attack on Eventim, another report of stolen accounts on a ticket site has emerged.

As Bleepingcomputer reports, there’s been a huge data leak at Ticketmaster and now millions of customers are at risk of their personal data being sold illegally online.

According to the report, a hacker known as ShinyHunters has put up the personal and financial information of a total of 560 million Ticketmaster customers for sale on the hacker forum BreachForums — and he’s asking $500,000 USD for it.

The data reportedly includes full customer names, private addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, as well as information on ticket sales, orders, and credit card numbers.

The estimated time period of this data goes back to 2012, but also affects Ticketmaster’s current databases.

Ticketmaster data allegedly about to be sold

ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer that there are already some interested buyers, one of them allegedly Ticketmaster itself. He didn’t answer the question of when and how the data was stolen, but there are clear indications that the data is genuine. (Ticketmaster has not yet officially confirmed the authenticity of this data.)

According to statistics, Ticketmaster’s website has over 116 million users worldwide every month. The last data hack on the company took place in 2018, when around five percent of all Ticketmaster data was stolen. British customers in particular were affected.

Further reading: How to check if your email address is being misused

How do I know if I am affected?

It isn’t yet possible to say for certain how many people have actually been affected by the Ticketmaster data leak. As a precaution, however, you should check whether you still have access to your account and you should also change your password.

We’re still waiting for a statement from Ticketmaster to be able to assess the next steps. In the meantime, see our guide on how to protect your digital accounts from hackers.