Ticketmaster just got hacked exposing more than half a billion users

A hacking group has claimed to have stolen an astonishing 500 million Ticketmaster customers' data, which includes a treasure trove of sensitive user data.

2

It was only last month Ticketmaster was slapped by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation Entertainment over its alleged monopoly on the entertainment industry. Now, Ticketmaster is reportedly suffering as a hacking group claimed to have stolen more than 500 million Ticketmaster customers' data in a recent attack, which the group is now turning around and attempting to sell for $500,000.

According to the hacker group the treasure trove of stolen data is approximately 1.3 terabytes and contains various sensitive user information such as full names of Ticketmaster customers, their addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, order history and ticket purchase details. It doesn't stop there. The group also claims to have scraped customers' payment data which includes names and the last four digits of their credit card numbers that were used at checkout of the ticketing service.

Unfortunately, it remains unclear at this moment how the hacker group called ShinyHunters allegedly carried out this attack. Notably, Ticketmaster, nor Live Nation Entertainment has confirmed if a breach took place, but Australia's Home Affairs Department did confirm a "cyber incident impacting Ticketmaster customers."

Cybersecurity expert and director of several IT companies Mark Lukie said the hack will have have major implications for Australian customers.

"This could mean the potential risk of identity fraud and we would assume this data would be used for phishing or impersonation attacks down the track," he said. "Users need to be very vigilant about their email and who they're responding to and not giving out any information to people trying to trick them."