Thousands of Australians may have been caught up in a data breach affecting ticketing giant Ticketmaster, with notorious hacker ShinyHunters claiming to have stolen the personal data of 560 million customers globally.
In a dark web forum post seen by this masthead, ShinyHunters claimed to have 1.3 terabytes of customer data, including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and payment details, along with credit card numbers, expiration dates and “customer fraud details”.
A screenshot of alleged Ticketmaster customer data up for sale.
The hacker is seeking payment of $US500,000 ($752,000) for a one-time sale of the information and includes a sample of the data, which also contains ticket sales, event information and order details. If confirmed, the breach could lead to issues for affected customers, including potential identity theft and financial fraud.
Ticketmaster Australia was contacted for comment. The company is thought to have nearly 2 million Australian users.
ShinyHunters gained notoriety as the owner of Breach Forums, which was previously shut down by the FBI but recently reopened. Breach Forums is where the infamous “Optusdata” user threatened to reveal the personal data of some 10 million Optus customers before apologising and deleting the post.
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Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, is being sued by the US government over allegations it is running a live event “monopoly”, with the US Justice Department leading a sweeping antitrust lawsuit brought by 30 state and district attorneys-general.
“In recent years, Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s exorbitant fees and technological failures have been criticised by fans and artists alike,” Attorney-General Merrick Garland said in bringing the lawsuit.
“But we are not here today because Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s conduct is inconvenient or frustrating. We are here because, as we allege, that conduct is anticompetitive and illegal.”