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Canadian Hacker Pleads Guilty in 2024 Ticketmaster Hack and Snowflake Inc. Breach
A 26-year-old from Kitchener, Ontario was one of several hackers who stole customer data and payment information from over 560 million Ticketmaster accounts. He currently faces up over 30 years in prison on counts of computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and a related conspiracy.
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A Canadian citizen has pleaded guilty in a massive cybertheft case that includes Ticketmaster data.
Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old Kitchener, Ontario resident, has pleaded guilty for his role in the 2024 Snowflake Inc. data breach in which customers' private information was compromised from the company's cloud storage. The hackers notably obtained data from companies like Ticketmaster, its parent company Live Nation and AT&T.
The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, and they obtained over 1.3 terabytes of customer including personal information, credit card information, order info, payment details and answers to security questions. The hackers stole information from over 560 million Ticketmaster users and tried to sell it online for $500,000 back in 2024, seeking up to $6 million USD for all the information obtained in the wider breach.
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Ticketmaster first determined that customer information had been compromised in late May 2024, after the hacks allegedly occurred between April 2 and May 18. They later sent an email in July notifying customers of a breach by an "unauthorized third party" and steps to take security wise, adding that it also took "a number of technical and administrative steps to further enhance the security of its systems and customer data" on its platform.
The hack enabled the perpetrators to leverage one of the biggest tours of all time for ransom. Per the Guardian, the cybercriminals tried to extort Ticketmaster for millions after claiming to have obtained barcode data for hundreds of thousands of tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, specifically its stops in Indianapolis, Miami and New Orleans. Although the ticketing data was leaked, Ticketmaster's dynamic barcode system prevented tickets from being stolen out of fans' hands.
As part of the wider breach, Moucka reportedly received $495,000 USD in Bitcoin (over $600 million CAD), while he and his co-conspirators also extorted over $3 million CAD in Bitcoin from three victims.
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Moucka pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and a related conspiracy while appearing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on Aug. 5. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 27, and he currently faces at least two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, and up to 30 years in prison for the remaining three counts.
"Today's guilty plea serves as a reminder to all cybercriminals, regardless of where they live, that they cannot hide behind a wall of anonymity. You will be found and brought to justice," says assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva of the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division.
Live Nation was subject to its own high-profile legal affair earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Justice launched a probe on the entertainment giant, ruling that the compony's merger with Ticketmaster violated federal antitrust laws by creating an illegal monopoly. The settlement entailed that Live Nation open Ticketmaster's platform to rivals and pay $200 million to over 40 U.S. states involved in the case. While the groundbreaking ruling took place in the U.S., Canadian independent ticketing companies saw it as a "monumental" omen for the independent and competing markets.
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The Canadian music industry has dealt with another recent high-profile cybertheft case. Earlier this year, FACTOR celebrated a major win after fighting one of the music industry's most disruptive online theft cases for two years, reaching a settlement with Scotiabank after $9.8 million famously went missing from the company's bank account.
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