Ticketing Service Discloses Embarrassing Credit Card Data Breach Lasting 2.5 Years
See Tickets, an online event ticket vendor that services both Europe and North America, has disclosed a major data breach affecting its payment processing portals. While the data breach notice is light on details, See Tickets customers should know that their payment information, including credit card credential, may now be in the hands of cybercriminals as a result of this breach.
According to the notice, See Tickets first became aware of potential unauthorized third party access to some of its checkout pages in April 2021. The company promptly launched an investigation aided by a forensics firm. However, it wasn’t until almost a year later in January 2022 that See Tickets completely secured its payment platform, shutting down the unauthorized activity. Then, last month, after working with Visa, MasterCard American Express, and Discover, the ticket vendor determined that the breach may have enabled the unknown third party to access customers’ payment information.
According to the notice, See Tickets first became aware of potential unauthorized third party access to some of its checkout pages in April 2021. The company promptly launched an investigation aided by a forensics firm. However, it wasn’t until almost a year later in January 2022 that See Tickets completely secured its payment platform, shutting down the unauthorized activity. Then, last month, after working with Visa, MasterCard American Express, and Discover, the ticket vendor determined that the breach may have enabled the unknown third party to access customers’ payment information.
See Tickets is still investigating the breach, as the company doesn’t yet know which customers were affected. As far as we are aware, See Tickets also has not shared any detailed information regarding the nature of the data breach. Some news outlets have reported that cybercriminals managed to inject credit card skimmer JavaScript into the vendor’s checkout pages, but we can’t currently confirm this theory.
The notice states that payment information provided in purchase made on the See Tickets website from June 25, 2019 to January 8, 2022 may have been exposed. If a credit card skimmer was involved, it would have to have been active on the website for that entire two and a half year period. Alternatively, cybercriminals could have gained unauthorized access more recently and accessed a database of saved payment information dating back to 2019.
Regardless of how the threat actors responsible for the breach managed to steal customers’ payment information, everyone who purchased tickets from See Tickets any time between mid-2019 and early 2022 may want to request re-issued credit cards from their respective financial institutions. While the notice states that the breach did not affect customers’ Social Security numbers, state identification numbers, or bank account information, cybercriminals may have stolen the following information:
The notice states that payment information provided in purchase made on the See Tickets website from June 25, 2019 to January 8, 2022 may have been exposed. If a credit card skimmer was involved, it would have to have been active on the website for that entire two and a half year period. Alternatively, cybercriminals could have gained unauthorized access more recently and accessed a database of saved payment information dating back to 2019.
Regardless of how the threat actors responsible for the breach managed to steal customers’ payment information, everyone who purchased tickets from See Tickets any time between mid-2019 and early 2022 may want to request re-issued credit cards from their respective financial institutions. While the notice states that the breach did not affect customers’ Social Security numbers, state identification numbers, or bank account information, cybercriminals may have stolen the following information:
- Names
- Addresses
- Zip codes
- Payment card numbers
- Card expiration dates
- CVV numbers
