Ticketmaster hack: 560 million customers affected

The personal information of 560 million Ticketmaster customers has allegedly been hacked and put up for sale for US$500,000.

ShinyHunters, the same hacker group behind last year's Pizza Hut Australia breach, announced the sale on a dark web hacking forum, along with a sample of the data.

According to the post, the 1.3TB file contains the following customer information:

• Name
• Address
• Email address
• Phone number
• Hashed (encrypted) credit card numbers
• Last four digits of credit card
• Credit card expiry dates
• Ticket sales, event and order information
• Customer fraud information

Ticketmaster and its parent company LiveNation has yet to confirm the number of affected customers.

According to its website, Ticketmaster operates in 36 countries, including Australia. Given the size of the alleged breach and the estimated 2 million Australian Ticketmaster customers, it is highly likely that Australian customers have been impacted.

Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company, confirmed to shareholders days after the alleged breach that it had seen "unauthorised activity" on its database, though the company has yet to disclose the number of customers affected nor release a statement to customers and the media.

A representative of the group told DataBreaches claims they contacted Ticketmaster but that the company had never even opened their message, let alone responded to it.

Monash University cybersecurity expert Professor Nigel Phair offers the following advice to those affected:

"Consumers need to remain hyper-vigilant in the online world and be on the lookout for unusual emails, SMS or phone calls. They should also look for any suspicious credit card transactions."