Ticketmaster hacked rival brand systems and will now pay $10m for it

Do you think corporate cyber espionage is a science fiction movie thing? Here’s a case that will make you think differently. Ticketmaster – a leading multinational in the sale of tickets for musical, theatrical and sports shows – agreed to pay an absurd US $ 10 million (about R $ 52 million) the extinct CrowdSurge, which was purchased and is now part of the Songkick concert discovery platform.

The reason for such a transaction? It has been proven that, years ago, Ticketmaster and its partner Live Nation worked together to break into the service’s systems and steal inside information. For this, in 2013, they hired former CrowdSurge employee Stephen Mead, convincing him to give up his old credentials so that the two corporations could take advantage of the startup’s bowels.

Let’s put aside CrowdSurge’s huge vacillation of keeping an offline employee’s login active and focusing on what was accessed: artist management analytics panels, hidden ticket sales previews links and other data that gave Ticketmaster a overview of the competitor’s operation, approaching its customers to offer similar services and conditions.

“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly – and illegally – accessed a competitor’s computers without their permission, using stolen passwords to collect corporate information illegally. In addition, they shamelessly held a ‘dome’ across the division in which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim’s company computers, ”explained lawyer Seth DuCharme.

Although the indemnity has only been sentenced now, it is worth noting that the investigation has been pending since 2017, when CrowdSurge filed a lawsuit against anti-competitive practices against Live Nation and threw accusations of invasion into the fan. Since then, one of the “heads” of the operation, Zeeshan Zaidi, was fired by Ticketmaster, as was Stephen Mead.

“Ticketmaster fired Zaidi and Mead in 2017, after their conduct came to the fore. Their actions violated our corporate policies and were inconsistent with our values. We are pleased that this matter has been resolved, ”the company told The Verge.

Source: The Verge