Shinyhunters, the hacker group allegedly behind the Ticketmaster data breach, reportedly claimed to have access to billions of dollars worth of tickets, including 440,000 Taylor Swift shows. Now, Ticketmaster has responded, abhorrently rejecting these claims.
In a statement to Hackread.com, the site that first reported the hacker leak, Ticketmaster said that their SafeTix technology prevents theft, as it is frequently refreshing the barcode. Additionally, the ticketing giant discredited claims of a ransom offer.
“Ticketmaster’s SafeTix technology protects tickets by automatically refreshing a new and unique barcode every few seconds so it cannot be stolen or copied,” Ticketmaster told the publication. “This is just one of many fraud protections we implement to keep tickets safe and unassailable. Some outlets are inaccurately reporting about a ransom offer. We were never engaged for a ransom and did not offer them money.”
Last week, HackRead.com reported a new posting on “the infamous cybercrime and hacker platform” Breach Forums.
“To celebrate the 4th of July we present to you 440k Taylor Swift Eras game tickets, and instead of her tour she’s performing in front of congress,” the forum posting from ShinyHunters said.
The post claimed it had access to a total of 193 million barcodes, with close to half a million for upcoming shows on Swift’s Eras Tour. They estimated that these barcodes are worth around $22 billion — a “face value” figure for the tickets. The group also claimed it demanded Ticketmaster/Live Nation a ransom of $8 million — an increase from their previous ask of $1 million, or the data would be sold to the highest bidder.
The stolen data reportedly includes
- 980 million sales orders
- 680 million orders detail
- 1.2 billion party lookup records
- 440 million unique email addresses
- 4 million uncased and deduped records
- 560 million AVS (Address Verification System) detail records
- 400 million encrypted credit card details with partial information
While this data is not confirmed as accurate, previous information shared by ShinyHunters proved to be true; earlier this month, Ticketmaster began contacting users impacted by the confirmed data breach, which occurred between April 2 and May 18, 2024.
“We determined that some of your personal information may have been affected by the incident,” Ticketmaster said, in part, in an email sent to impacted customers. “We have not seen any additional unauthorized activity in the cloud database wince we began our investigation.”
Ticketmaster had also assured consumers that their accounts “remain secure” and that there “has been no more unauthorized activity.”
This is a developing story. Stay with Ticket News for updates.