(Hypebot) Ticketfly and the sites of many of the major venues and promoters it services are offline as the ticketing company struggles with a major “cyber incident.” The site, which is owned by Eventbrite, went dark just after 6AM ET Thursday with the tweet: “To protect our clients and fans, and to secure the website and related data, we have temporarily taken all Ticketfly systems offline.”
In addition to ticketing, Ticketfly provides web site services to many of its clients. As Thursday morning, the entire sites of some major promoters and venues were offline. The sites of both IMP Promotions, a major DC area promoter, and its new flagship venue The Anthem were offline displaying only “502 Bad Gateway” message. Many other promoters and venues were unable to sell tickets.
Eventbrite clients appeared unaffected by the hack.
The Hackers
Code left on the Ticketfly site points to the hacker group IsHaKdZ, who appears to be demanding a ransom Along with a yandex.com email address, the hackers left this message:
Ticketfly HacKeD By IsHaKdZ. Your Security Down im Not Sorry. Next time I will publish database “backstage.”
Ticketfly was founded in 2008 in San Francisco. In 2012, the company managed ticket distribution for 360 venues across the country, though this number jumped to more than 1,100 venues in 2015. That year, Ticketfly announced its acquisition by Pandora in a $335 million cash and stock deal. On June 9, 2017, Pandora sold Ticketfly to its largest competitor, Eventbrite for $200 million.
“All Ticketfly and related systems are temporarily offline. Please check back for updates,” reads a text announcement at the top of an otherwise blank Ticketfly site.
