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Ticketfly’s website held for ransom

Aaron Coe (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Aaron Coe (CC BY-ND 2.0)

by Maia Jacobson

June 01, 2018

Yesterday, May 31, the website of ticketing company Ticketfly was hacked and held for ransom while customer information was leaked. The cyber attack by "IShAkDz" exposed customer data and, according to CNET though unconfirmed by Ticketfly, the hacker demanded one bitcoin (about $7,500) to fix the cyber attack.

According to CNET, the hacker "appeared to have a database with more than 4,000 spreadsheets holding people's information, including email addresses, phone numbers, names and addresses."

Tickefly, a San Francisco company owned by Eventbrite, took their website offline yesterday following the security breach, and now the site's homepage features a statement from the company explaining that they have been a "target of a cyber incident" and that they've taken all systems offline temporarily in order to look into the situation and bring the "systems back online as soon as possible."

Before Ticketfly's website went into maintenance mode, visitors who were trying to buy tickets online were met with an image of V from V for Vendetta, a character commonly connected to the hacker group Anonymous. Messages included with this image were "Ticketfly HacKeD By IsHaKdZ," an e-mail address, and files with customer information via one of the site's URLs, ticketfly.com/member.

In the same statement, Ticketfly suggests going to specific venues' or promoters' social media pages to find out more about status for upcoming events while the website is down. The company provides services for a handful of Minnesota venues.

The Cedar Cultural Center, who uses Ticketfly as a provider, posted on Twitter yesterday that they were aware of the cyber attack, providing a list of other places people could purchase tickets. Amsterdam Bar and Hall also took to Twitter to direct ticket-buying traffic to the remaining available outlets. The Cabooze also uses Ticketfly; their website homepage is currently displaying the Ticketfly statement.

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