A major hack at Ticketmaster shows 'someone was asleep at the wheel', a cybersecurity expert says.
A group of hackers claim to have stolen data belonging to more than 500 million global Ticketmaster customers.
The company which is owned by Live Nation has not confirmed the attack.
The hackers, known as ShinyHunters, claim they have gained access to customers' information and plan to sell it on the dark web.
Smart Tech 247 Chairperson Ronan Murphy told The Pat Kenny Show the company could try and buy the data back from the hackers.
"It looks like this data is out there now on the dark web for sale," he said.
"So whether they buy the data back it looks like the horse has bolted - it's a matter of 'Are they going to close the gate after the horse has escaped?'
"It looks like it's a very substantial amount of data: in terms of scale it's 1.2 terabytes which is enormous".
A man looks at his iPhone displaying the Ticketmaster logo, 19-4-19. Image: M4OS Photos / AlamyMr Murphy said the Ticketmaster data seems to include some payment information.
"It looks like it's personal information - names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses," he said.
"It looks like there's a certain amount of payment information; although that could be partial credit card information.
"Then there's a lot of order history".
Mr Murphy said a good response to such hacks is vital.
"Nearly every organisation gets hacked at some stage but it's what happens when you get hacked," he said.
"Most companies have a very good incident response plan, they're able to deal with it effectively and typically the fallout from it is not so bad.
"What's clearly obvious from this is that Ticketmaster/Live Nation were asleep at the wheel."
'A huge misstep' by Ticketmaster
Mr Murphy said it is hard to see how Ticketmaster did not realise there was a problem.
"To get that volume of data off a network literally would take days," he said.
"So these guys were in there and they were moving these vast quantities of data over an internet connection and nobody caught them.
"That is a huge misstep by them, it will be very difficult to defend and they're going to have a lot of explaining to do".
Mr Murphy said anyone concerned about their account should monitor their bank cards for suspicious activity, change their Ticketmaster password and be on alert for phishing campaigns.
It comes as US authorities are seeking to break up Ticketmaster's 'monopoly' across the live concert industry.
Earlier month the country's Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit "for monopolisation and other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the live entertainment industry".
It says the lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the live concert industry and provide better choices at lower prices for fans.
Ticketmaster has been contacted for comment.
