Ticketfly Hacking Suspect Faces Up To Three Years Imprisonment, $250,000 Fine

Hacker
Sergei Konkov \ TASS via Getty Images – Hacker
Nearly two years after Ticketfly was temporarily brought offline by a cyber attack that exposed the personal information of as many as 27 million customers, the hacker responsible has been charged with extortion in relation to damage to a protected computer.
In documents filed in U.S. District court in San Francisco Feb. 18 Moulay O. Ishak was accused of demanding money and other things of value “in relation to damage to a protected computer, to wit, Ticketfly’s servers, where such damage was caused to facilitate the extortion.”

If found guilty, Ishak faces up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines. 

“We’re pleased to see that the alleged perpetrator of the malicious attack on Ticketfly that occurred in 2018 has been identified and indicted,” an Eventbrite spokesperson told Pollstar in a statement. “We appreciate the efforts of the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office in their continued pursuit of justice and for seeking closure for all involved.”

The attack on May 31, 2018, caused Ticketfly to go offline for several days and disrupted multiple services offered. The company said credit and debit card information was not compromised, but information including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers were accessed.

At the time of the incident, Ticketfly’s homepage briefly bared a public defacement, complete with the “Anonymous” icon Guy Fawkes mask displaying the message: “Ticketfly HacKeD By IShaAkDz. Your Security Down im Not Sorry.”

“In today’s world, the breach is to be expected,” Alex Heid, chief research officer at SecurityScorecard, told Pollstar after the incident. “Ticketfly shouldn’t be ridiculed for being affected by this because they actually responded fairly quickly. Basically every company is going to be the victim of a data breach in one way or another – it’s just how you respond to it that’s going to be whether it’s big and embarrassing.”

Ticketfly was acquired by Eventbrite in 2017 and the platform was sunset in 2019 after integrating into the new platform Eventbrite Music.