The US online shop Ticketmaster agreed to pay a fine of 10 million dollars after the company admitted to spying on smaller rivals.
According to court files, 7 years ago the company hired a former employee of the competitor. Soon afterwards, other members of the management team urged to use known usernames to break into the network and obtain data about customers and internal processes and researches. The insights also included ticket sales, so that Ticketmaster could target and poach them.
Ticketmaster employees have repeatedly accessed a competitor’s PC without authorization by using stolen log-in data to gather business details. Additionally, Ticketmaster employees brazenly held a department wide summit where the stolen data was used to access the victim company’s PC as if it were an appropriate business.
Requirements For Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster only lost its unauthorized access a few years ago with competitor Songkick. Songkick then sued and its parent company for antitrust activities, but not long afterwards ceased its providers.
With the penalty that has now been imposed, the proceedings have not ended entirely, but have been suspended for the time being. In the meantime, Ticketmaster is subject to some situations. Among other things, the company must not only submit an annual record to the public prosecutor for the next three years, but also prove that it has drawn up and implemented guidelines against other similar activities.
Two years ago, Ticketmaster was also the target of a malware, in which unauthorized hackers had access to payment information and other individual data from customers of the online shop. This also included mail, log-in, and usernames. However, only customers from Great Britain are said to have been hacked.
