Security News > 2021 > January > Ticketmaster Coughs Up $10 Million Fine After Hacking Rival Business

Ticketmaster must pay a hefty $10 million fine after several employees utilized unlawfully obtained passwords to hack a rival company's computer systems - in attempts to "Choke off" its business.

The American ticket sales and distribution giant, which is owned by Live Nation, in 2013 hired an employee who formerly worked for Ticketmaster's rival company, according to the Department of Justice last week.

This co-conspirator illegally retained credentials from the rival firm, which he and other Ticketmaster executives then used to hack into the victim company's systems.

In 2015, the victim company filed a civil complaint against Live Nation and Ticketmaster alleging antitrust violations.

Last week's fine against Ticketmaster resolves charges that the company "Repeatedly accessed without authorization the competitor's computer systems." The fine is part of a deferred prosecution agreement that Ticketmaster entered with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York to resolve a five-count criminal complaint filed today charging computer intrusion and fraud offenses.

In November, Ticketmaster's U.K. division was slapped with a $1.65 million fine by the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, over its 2018 data breach that impacted 9.4 million customers.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/ticketmaster-10-million-fine-hacking-rival/162695/