Ticketmaster acknowledges data breach

Live Nation, the parent company of ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster, has confirmed that its subsidiary has become the victim of a large-scale data breach. Security researchers think the breach could be part of a larger hack at cloud storage service provider Snowflake.

Last week, hackers collective ShinyHunters posted a message on the dark web saying the data of 560 million Ticketmaster customers was for sale. The group said it acted as a proxy for an unidentified threat group and was selling the data for 500,000 dollars.

Vx-underground researchers, who got hold of a data sample, confirmed the database included full names, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, hashed credit card numbers, order details and financial transactions.

They couldn’t however verify the authenticity of the dataset. Some security researchers therefore stated that the data breach could be a hoax to gain attention and resurrect the recently seized illicit marketplace BreachForums.

Live Nation says that the incident has no impact on overall business operations

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation says it identified ‘unauthorized activity’ within a third-party cloud database environment containing company data. As soon as the incident came to light, the company launched an investigation with industry-leading forensic investigators to understand what exactly happened.

“We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement. As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorized access to personal information,” Live Nation says.

The parent company concludes the filing with the observation that the incident has no material impact on its overall business operations and financial conditions. “We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing.”

Cloud storage company distances itself from Ticketmaster data breach

A spokesperson for Tickermaster told TechCrunch that its stolen database was hosted on Snowflake, a Boston-based cloud storage service provider.

Snowflake says that it recently has observed “an increase in cyber threat activity” targeting some of its customers’ accounts. Simultaneously, the company distances itself from the data breach at Ticketmaster.

“To date, we do not believe this activity is caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or malicious activity within the Snowflake product. Throughout the course of our ongoing investigation, we have promptly informed the limited number of customers who we believe may have been impacted,” the company says.