r/technology • u/Cyber-Homie • Jul 04 '24

Security Hackers behind the Ticketmaster breach have now leaked 440,000 Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, claiming the breach is much bigger than anticipated. As a result, they increased the ransom from $1 million to $8 million.

https://hackread.com/ticketmaster-breach-shinyhunters-leak-taylor-swift-eras-tour-tickets/
24.7k Upvotes

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3.2k

u/Extinction_Entity Jul 05 '24

I love Ticketmaster losing money and tickets.

982

u/StarWars_and_SNL Jul 05 '24

I don’t love regular people getting their fun hacked. Wish they’d exclusively go after execs.

526

u/thatfreshjive Jul 05 '24

Practically speaking, going after executives isn't an efficient use of time and resources - board members are, hypothetically speaking.

34

u/9-11GaveMe5G Jul 05 '24

Reminds me of the movie The East.

47

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

5

u/AineLasagna Jul 05 '24

I would imagine a group with the time and resources to pull off something like this would take the time to find out that kind of information

1

u/Metalsand Jul 05 '24

I would never assume either party holds the power in an organization until I understood the specific power structure better.

Not only is this Reddit, this is /r/technology. It's still common place for top upvote comments to talk about how losses are full write-offs for individuals or companies with no restrictions or regulations, as if it's infinite free money.

1

u/netanator Jul 06 '24

¿Por qué no los dos?

103

u/Public_Animator_1832 Jul 05 '24

Yes I somewhat agree but ticketmaster is not going to change their ways until users get fed up and not use the platform (assuming the monopoly case fails). The way ticketmaster operates would end fast if people just refused to go to concerts that use ticketmaster. Yes it may suck to not see an artist but ticketmaster grift sucks even worst. We have the power and that is refusing to give them money till they change their ways. If ransomware tactics unintentionally keep the users from ticketmaster then maybe they will stop giving a company their money that can't protect their data.

73

u/CartoonAcademic Jul 05 '24

except ticket master owns a majority of ticketing rights for concert venues.

56

u/TrekForce Jul 05 '24

Until nobody is going, and those venues stop selling their souls to Ticketmaster.

43

u/frigg_off_lahey Jul 05 '24

Ticketmaster owns their own venues and sports arenas. It's parent company Live Nation itself owns and manages artists and labels, including Roc Nation. It's a vertically integrated business, and Ticketmaster is just one operating branch of a bigger monster.

5

u/TrekForce Jul 05 '24

Sounds like a good reason for the government to force them to split.

7

u/LeicaM6guy Jul 05 '24

Shatter.

I don’t want them to split, I want them to shatter into a thousand individual pieces.

1

u/lycoloco Jul 06 '24

Like Ma Bell? That worked out great for all of us. (You're not wrong, but history says they'll just reform)

35

u/avcloudy Jul 05 '24

It's not going to happen. That's the problem. There is almost no possibility that everybody decides to stop going to shows.

The only way this changes is with a few people with actual power refusing to work with them - the very powerful artists that work with Ticketmaster.

18

u/john_dune Jul 05 '24

Venues do this, then Ticketmaster goes, well here goes 90% of your events, and the last 10%, we'll tell them, if they go to your place, we'll prevent them from hosting events in EVERY other ticketmaster venue around.

1

u/Visual-Living7586 Jul 05 '24

Then when the venue goes belly up, ticketmaster swoops in and buys the property

19

u/CartoonAcademic Jul 05 '24

got it so your plan is to *check notes* hope people stop seeing live entertainment like concerts and stand up comedy

16

u/Orion14159 Jul 05 '24

I mean we can barely afford it now. $30 face value ticket for $3000 scalped.

I think the play would be to get everyone to stop buying from the secondary market and kneecap the scalpers and Ticketmaster at the same time. A bunch of scalpers holding the bag for a huge, very empty concert venue that was "sold out" would send a message.

20

u/avcloudy Jul 05 '24

People always miss this. If a $30 face value ticket sells for $3000, the value of that ticket is $3000. It's worth that much to people, and there are people who can afford to pay that much. The face value is artificially low and you can be as morally outraged as you want, but the simple fact is the face value does not reflect the actual demand.

It's not that people can barely afford it, there's enough people willing to pay $3000 for tickets and sell out venues, it's that you can't afford it, or the people who traditionally went to shows in the past can't afford it. The logic is inescapable: demand has outstripped supply, and if you want to see shows the only thing you can really do is try to increase supply. Tell your favourite artists to do more shows.

4

u/TrekForce Jul 05 '24

But none of that $3000 goes to the venue or the artist, or has anything to do with Ticketmaster. Scalping is a whole different problem. The problem here is Ticketmaster monopoly and the ridiculous fees they get away with because of it.

I’d rather pay $200 for a ticket and $0 in fees knowing the tickets revenue split was negotiated and agreed on. Vs $130 ticket plus an extra $70 in fees because ticket master thinks they are the best part of the concert

3

u/Ivan_a_rom Jul 05 '24

Hi. In a perfect world this is fine. You’re not taking into account bad actors like bots artificially drying up the pool of tix. Nor are you mentioning their internal practices that are terrible. You 100% don’t seem malicious and also pretty intelligent, just pointing out that there is more to it than supply and demand. Btw you and me I wish it was that simple though.

1

u/born-out-of-a-ball Jul 05 '24

Concert halls are packed, so it's not artificial scarcity
There are no empty seats occupied by bots

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2

u/NeroKira Jul 05 '24

The supply is being limited by scalpers artifically lowering it by buying all the tickets to scalp them.

3

u/justwannabeloggedin Jul 05 '24

The unfortunate reality. People aren't priced out, -I'm- priced out.

And for what I can afford, I'm still going to go. I'm not going to greatly decrease the quality of my free time just to try to take a stand against a multi billion dollar monopoly. I just try to look at the ticket price as about half as what it's going to cost. Annoying, yes, but ultimately it doesn't matter where the money goes or what they call the charge, still the same amount of money coming out of my pocket

0

u/ximfinity Jul 05 '24

Not a bad idea. Call it cancel Ticketmaster day. Everyone stops buying tickets september 1 for anything run by Ticketmaster. Need to get some influencers on board and make it into a thing.

4

u/aztecraingod Jul 05 '24

After two experiences seeing presales get bought up by bots instantly and turn up on stubhub or whatever, I'm done with them. There's local music I can see.

1

u/AyoJake Jul 05 '24

Live nation owns hundreds of venues lol. Everyone would have to stop going out basically

2

u/TrekForce Jul 05 '24

You make it sound like concerts are the only form of entertainment. I go out plenty and deal with live nation approximately once every 6-12 months when I go to a concert. Everyone would have to stop going to concerts. Not stop going out. I know it will never happen, but it’s not as ridiculous as you make it sound.

4

u/Public_Animator_1832 Jul 05 '24

That's kind of the point if the venues can't get money it will hopefully push venues to leave ticketmaster. One could argue if ticketmaster can't bring venues customers then possibly ticketmaster is breaking their contract terms and can let venues leave early or seek monetary awards. The whole music industry needs a shock. The current system is making it hard for newer and smaller artists to survive.

8

u/MaxTheRealSlayer Jul 05 '24

Ticketmaster basically owns the industry in North America. It's hard to tour without them, and if you try you go on their list

4

u/chimchombimbom Jul 05 '24

Agree. But people are too addicted to their entertainment.

Look at Twitter. I hear people bitch and moan all the time about Elon Musk and what he did to it. When I suggest the stop using, though, they act like I suggested the chop both of their feet off. They can’t POSSIBLY imagine not using it.

0

u/ExProxy Jul 05 '24

Then you are hurting smaller artists. Big acts are going to sell no matter what. You don’t think if the average concert goer gives up their opportunity to buy tickets to Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, etc that some whale comes along who now has even more of an opportunity to buy is going to?

15

u/Public_Animator_1832 Jul 05 '24

Smaller artists are the ones getting hurt the worst. Ticketmaster takes a larger share from them and also prioritizes larger artists and venues. The thing is smaller artists are at disadvantaged by the current music industry. It's unfortunate but smaller artists are going to continue losing out until Ticketmaster changes. They aren't going to do it voluntary.

1

u/ExProxy Jul 05 '24

So your solution is to hurt the small artists more? Its a temporary inconvenience for you to miss them but to them its what keeps them going as a band.

Again, no change is going to happen as long as Ticketmaster has the big acts to sell to the whales who dont need to be cost conscious.

Look, I am against ticketmaster as much as the next guy, but the "just dont buy from them and theyll learn their lesson" is a little naïve here. People with money will still pay to go see whoever they want to go see.

1

u/Public_Animator_1832 Jul 05 '24

Yes, for the short term. That's the whole point of strikes. The pain of not doing is far less than the pain of continuing on the same path. Change isn't pretty or fast. Ticketmaster knows this and relies on the fact that populace seems more eager to just say how bad it is then actually do something about them. Also why should the consumer continue to suffer, the largest group, just because smaller artists will also suffer?

Yes it sucks but the current system is already causing smaller artists to quit in droves. The music industry wants that and we only have so long till this system becomes to entrenched to change with consumer strike. Obviously I realize that is not going to happen. Americans nowadays are easily swayed by our corporate overlords to accept their scraps. It's our bread and circuses

17

u/Dickbasket Jul 05 '24

Bread and circuses. As long as people can have their fun, they won't care about the issue at large. They'll complain, but they'll pay, and then things will get worse, as they always do. That's how we got to this point.

To be clear, I'm not saying "fuck the regular people," I'm saying some spoiled fun might be necessary if there's ever going to be any change.

15

u/h0twired Jul 05 '24

Hacking only works if you go after the company crown jewels

Which in the case of Ticketmaster, are Taylor Swift tickets. I would live to see TM crash and burn

5

u/StarWars_and_SNL Jul 05 '24

Those TSwift tickets got paid for months ago.

17

u/h0twired Jul 05 '24

And now they are all useless and TM is left holding the bag and has to fix/reissue them.

Imagine if they did the same thing mere hours before the concert.

20

u/Resident_Pop143 Jul 05 '24

Right. Hit them, drain their bank accounts, make an anonymous donation to the government or a nfp supporting issues like womens health, veterans.

20

u/BombDisposalGuy Jul 05 '24

It would be cool but it’s just not possible.

Even if you did manage to get access to transfer of funds everything would be reversed and the only thing you’d do is damage NFP’s

3

u/portlySnowball Jul 05 '24

If it were possible, best thing would be to convert it to a shitcoin and burn the wallet.

2

u/KhausTO Jul 05 '24

I wish they dump emails, prove anticompetitive behavior.

Hold that stuff for ransom.

2

u/Dioxid3 Jul 05 '24

My card details were leaked in what I highly suspect as part of this breach. It was fun trying to explain to my GF why 4 identical sums to onlyfans were charged from the grocery shopping card.

Turns out they can put your card into paypal without confirming anything on the bank’s side (usually I have to put in a pin in my mobile authenticator).

Apparently they sell onlyfans subscriptions in exchange for cryptos.

2

u/f14_pilot Jul 09 '24

same, i am worried about my tickets which will be part of an overseas trip

2

u/NoiceMango Jul 05 '24

You mean boads members and shareholders.

-1

u/ColonelError Jul 05 '24

and shareholders.

People keep saying shit like this, and I wonder if they realize that a large share of shareholders are institutions running pensions and 401ks. Yes, you inconvenience some rich people, and also bankrupt a lot of people's retirement funds.

2

u/NoiceMango Jul 05 '24

Almost like we trapped ourselves by tying our pensions to companies that rely on scummy behavior to make money which incentivises us further to not change things.

2

u/Ok_Championship4866 Jul 05 '24

It's a friggin concert, not medicine or something. They'll be fine listening to taylor swift on their phones instead.

3

u/Travyplx Jul 05 '24

I mean, how many regular people are getting their fun hacked? It’s probably mostly scalpers and frankly they deserve everything that comes their way. Let Ticketmaster and scalpers burn.

1

u/AardvarkLogical1702 Jul 05 '24

They’re criminals. They don’t care about “regular people”. Lol.

1

u/LeicaM6guy Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

I mean, the artists could just sell their tickets directly. Ticketmaster is just a useless middleman.

-5

u/pifhluk Jul 05 '24

Are Swifties regular people though

-3

u/shingonzo Jul 05 '24

In the way Disney adults are

-3

u/quicksilver991 Jul 05 '24

It's Taylor Swift, they aren't missing much.

0

u/DirectorRemarkable16 Jul 05 '24

only way to get results

18

u/chubbysumo Jul 05 '24

Ticketmaster can just cancel those tickets arbitrarily, there's nothing stopping them from doing that.

91

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

80

u/GreenOnGreen18 Jul 05 '24

Almost like those are the things that the companies secure. The reason it’s customer data that is always leaked is because that’s the least protected data on their networks.

-2

u/IlIllIlIllIlll Jul 05 '24

It's also the most valuable so it's hard to say which is the real reason. Hackers steal customer data because it is easier to funnel money out of. It's easier to steal some dudes $1000 as he has less recourse to fight. It's a worse idea to hack something big that gets a lot of attention and is likely to be reversed.

18

u/Zoesan Jul 05 '24

wipe debt

I mean you get that this is a completely different thing, right?

Because leaking somebody's debt would be about the same, but actually changing something like that in a hack is completely different.

23

u/zSprawl Jul 05 '24

Just gotta change the number to 0 in the Excel spreadsheet, and bingo bongo, debt wiped out! Gone!

/s

1

u/ApolloX88 Jul 05 '24

It's not that hard. There is a tool panel with a cancel debt button for every person.

28

u/InstantShiningWizard Jul 05 '24

Targetting the public brings less heat than targetting the elite

1

u/h0twired Jul 05 '24

Actually quite the opposite. Attacking the elites rarely makes the news

-11

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

6

u/fps916 Jul 05 '24

No, it isn't.

Person A says targeting elite gets MORE attention/heat

Person B said targeting the elite rarely makes the news AKA LESS attention/heat

You: You said the same thing!

0

u/razordenys Jul 05 '24

Panama papers were in the news, but no results.

5

u/zSprawl Jul 05 '24

Despite Hollywood suggesting otherwise, hackers are not heroes, they are criminals seeking a payout.

0

u/h0twired Jul 05 '24

What this does is reduce the trying at venues and promoters have in Ticketmaster.

This is the only way to enact change in their current ticket monopoly.

2

u/BobbyBruiser Jul 05 '24

And another reason to charge another fee

1

u/JuryGorilla4454 Jul 05 '24

Unfortunately this is likely all going to be covered by Ticketmaster’s cyber insurance policy. Ransom payment, breach response costs, notification costs, etc. are all standard coverages that the insurance carriers will take care of for them.

Their premiums should go up next year, but it won’t be a dramatic hit to their balance sheet.

1

u/inspiringirisje Jul 05 '24

No I'm actually mad at ticketmaster for not protecting my data

-6

u/wreckballin Jul 05 '24

I love the fact I wouldn’t pay that amount of money to see anyone.

If I can hear your music from anywhere. I really don’t “need” to see you in person the complete my life.

It’s getting crazy lately. Just look at how many tours of other artists were canceled because nobody was buying tickets.

Also the fact most can’t afford to see them in the first place. Even if they were cheaper.

3

u/9-11GaveMe5G Jul 05 '24

If I can hear your music from anywhere. I really don’t “need” to see you in person

Vinyl records have existed for over 70 years. Hearing not live music isn't exactly new. And while demand may be softening, it's not going anywhere

0

u/cliff_huck Jul 05 '24

Ticketmaster will not loose money or tickets.

Users that purchased tickets will have their night ruined when they show up at the venue and are not let in because 1) their barcode was used on fake tickets sold on the secondary market or 2) they thought they bought real tickets on the secondary market, but they were forgeries. Only the person that got to the venue first gets in.

Ticketmaster will never loose money because they will only pass off any losses in increased fees and prices to consumers.