After data security incident, Ticketmaster warns Australians: “monitor your accounts”

Ticketing agency Ticketmaster Australia has warned that some Australian customers might be affected in the suspected data breach that hit its UK site this week.

Ticketmaster UK issued an alert of a potential personal data breach four days after it was detected on Saturday.

The malware was found in a third-party artificial intelligence-based customer support chatbot service called Inbenta Technologies, a Spanish company based in the US.

It was initially found to be exporting up to 40,000 UK customers’ data to an unknown recipient.

The global company’s Australian operation has since notified Australians who purchased tickets via Ticketmaster between September 2017 and June 23, 2018, that information as name, address, email address, telephone number, payment details and Ticketmaster login details could be compromised.

A statement from the company says: “While there is no evidence to suggest your data has been compromised, we are notifying you out of an abundance of caution.

“Forensic teams and security experts are working around the clock to understand how the data was compromised.

“We are working with relevant authorities, as well as credit card companies and banks.”

The ticketing company has told customers to reset their passwords and monitor their bank account statements “for evidence of fraud or identity theft.

“If you are concerned or notice any suspicious activity on your account, you should contact your bank and any credit card companies.

“We take the protection of that information very seriously and we are very sorry to have to write to you in these circumstances.”

Aside from Australians, Ticketmaster has now also yellow-flagged customers from New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain.

North American customers had not been affected, it said.

Ticketmaster insisted that less than 5% of its global customer base has been affected.

“As soon as we discovered the malicious software, we disabled the Inbenta product across all Ticketmaster websites.”

The Australian company has set up a dedicated website here.

Customers should also contact fan.help@ticketmaster.com.au or visit security.ticketmaster.co.uk if they have questions about the suspected data breach.

That was not the only problem faced by Ticketmaster this week.

Last October, Ticketmaster US took two US ticket brokerage firms Prestige Entertainment and Renaissance Ventures to court, claiming they employed “bots” to snap up tickets in bulk.

Now the two firms have counter-claimed, accusing Ticketmaster of creating and spreading its own bots.

Prestige says Ticketmaster’s abuse of its market position extended to the secondary ticket market, and has not explained how tickets end up there.

Ticketmaster calls the claims “patently false.”

It adds, “Ticketmaster in no way, shape or form supplies automated programs known as bots to give ticket resellers an advantage over real fans.

“Ticketmaster has taken a strong stance against bots, has zero tolerance for their use, and cancels tickets that are purchased using them.”