Ticketmaster Fined $10M For Hacking Rival

Live Nation’s Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a US$10 million criminal fine in order to sidestep prosecution on charges that it hacked a competitor’s computer system to steal confidential information, according to the US Department of Justice.

“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” Acting US Attorney Seth DuCharme said in a press release on Wednesday, December 30. 

“Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers, as if that were an appropriate business tactic,” DuCharme added.

Ticketmaster employees are accused of repeatedly using stolen passwords to hack computers belonging to its competitor Songkick. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Songkick is a concert discovery service owned by Warner Music Group. 

The US Department of Justice reached a deal with Ticketmaster before US District Judge Margo Brodie at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Terms also include a three-year deferred prosecution agreement, according to the release. The deal resolves the five criminal counts including wire fraud, conspiracy and computer intrusion.

Another provision of the deal requires that the Los Angeles, California company keep updated compliance and ethics procedures to stop cybercrime. Further, Ticketmaster will have to report to the US Attorney’s Office annually during the three-year term of the agreement.

If the agreement is breached, Ticketmaster will be subject to prosecution for the original charges — one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions; one count of computer intrusion for commercial advantage; one count of computer intrusion in furtherance of fraud; one count of wire fraud conspiracy; and one count of wire fraud, the Department of Justice stated.

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