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ICO fines Ticketmaster £125m for failing to protect customer payment details

Nov 19, 2020 | ICO

Link(s): https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2020/11/ico-fines-ticketmaster-uk-limited-125million-for-failing-to-protect-customers-payment-details/

Context

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a £125m fine to Ticketmaster UK Limited for failing to keep its customers’ personal data secure.

The ICO found that the company had failed to put appropriate security measures in place to prevent cyber-attack on a chat-bot installed on its online payment page.

Key points to note

  • Ticketmaster’s failure to protect customer information is a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • The data breach, which included names, payment card numbers, expiry dates and CVV numbers, potentially affected 9.4million of Ticketmaster’s customers across Europe, including 1.5 million in the UK.
  • The investigation found that 60,000 payment cards belonging to Barclays Bank customers had been subjected to known fraud and another 6,000 cards were replaced by Monzo Bank after suspected fraudulent use.
  • The ICO found that Ticketmaster failed to:
    • Assess the risks of using a chat-bot on its payment page
    • Identify and implement appropriate security measures to negate the risks
    • Identify the source of suggested fraudulent activity in a timely manner
  • The breach began in February 2018 when Monzo Bank customers reported fraudulent transactions. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Barclaycard, Mastercard and American Express all reported suggestions of fraud to Ticketmaster. But the company failed to identify the problem.
  • It took Ticketmaster nine weeks from being alerted to possible fraud to monitoring the network traffic through its online payment page.
  • The ICO’s investigation found that Ticketmaster’s decision to include the chat-bot, hosted by a third party, on its online payment page allowed an attacker access to customers’ financial details.
  • Although the breach began in February 2018, the penalty only relates to the breach from 25th May 2018, when new rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. The chat-bot was completely removed from Ticketmaster UK Limited’s website on 23rd June 2018.
  • The breach occurred before the UK left the EU, therefore the ICO investigated on behalf of all EU authorities as lead supervisory authority under the GDPR. The penalty and action have been approved by the other EU DPAs through the GDPR’s co-operation process.

Next actions

Firms should consider the adequacy of the security measures in place around any online payment facilities offered.