Ticketmaster has finally notified its users who may have been impacted by a data breach — one month after Global News first reported that the personal information of Canadian customers was likely stolen.
In an email to its customers on Monday, Ticketmaster said that their personal information may have been obtained by an unauthorized third party from a cloud database that was hosted by a separate third-party data services provider.
The security incident took place between April 2 and May 18, Ticketmaster said.
“On May 23, 2024, we determined that some of your personal information may have been affected by the incident,” the email said.
Based on its investigation, Ticketmaster said that the personal information of some customers who bought tickets to events in North America was compromised.
This may include users’ names, email, phone number and credit or debit card details, but user accounts were not affected.
“We are fully committed to protecting your information, and deeply regret that this incident occurred,” the email said.
This is the first public acknowledgement by Ticketmaster of the massive hack impacting more than half a billion people in different countries.
Infamous hacking group ShinyHunters claimed in May that it stole 1.3 terabytes of data containing the personal information of 560 million Ticketmaster customers.
According to an alleged sample of the data, which a whistleblower shared with Global News, there were at least 527 Canadian home addresses included in the leak.
A preliminary analysis of the location data in 12 files containing spreadsheets suggested that the vast majority of the data breached was from customers in the United States. Canadians were the second-largest demographic group, followed by Mexicans. A small amount of data originated from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America.
Ticketmaster said it has been investigating the security incident with the assistance of outside experts.
“We have also contacted and are cooperating with U.S. federal law enforcement authorities, and this notice has not been delayed due to law enforcement investigation,” it said in its email.
Since the breach, Ticketmaster said it has rotated passwords for all accounts associated with the affected cloud database, reviewed access permissions and increased alerting mechanisms.
The event site is also offering relevant customers a free 12-month credit or identity monitoring service through TransUnion of Canada, Inc.
— With files from Global News’ Kathryn Mannie