Ticketmaster admits UK customers' personal data stolen in hack

Ticketmaster revealed it has suffered a security breach that could have affected up to 40,000 UK customers.

The company has said that personal data could have been stolen and was investigating whether international customers could also have been affected by the breach.

The company discovered malicious software on a third-party customer support product Inbenta Technologies had caused the hack. The company immediately disabled the support product.

Inbenta is a Spanish company, based in the United States, which produces "artificial intelligence and natural language processing" software.

"Some personal or payment information may have been accessed by an unknown third party", the firm said on Twitter.

All affected customers have been contacted and advised to change their passwords. The company has also offered a free 12-month identity monitoring service.

The company said the attack was likely to have only affected UK customers who purchased tickets between February and 23 June of 2018.

As a precaution it has also informed international customers who purchased tickets between September 2017 and 23 June of 2018 and advised them to change passwords.

Information that may have been compromised includes names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, payment details and Ticketmaster log-in details.

The company assured that "forensic teams and security experts are working around the clock" to understand how data was compromised.

The company believes that less than 5% of Ticketmaster’s global customer base has been affected by the incident.