[ad_1]
Ticketmaster accepted a $ 10 million criminal fine after federal prosecutors said the company used illegally obtained passwords to hack into the computer systems of competitor CrowdSurge in order to harm its business, according to the Department of Justice. Justice and information.
The massive charges are part of Ticketmaster’s deferred prosecution agreement for a five-count criminal investigation of computer intrusion and fraud offenses, according to a statement from the U.S. prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.
The case stems from former employee Zeeshan Zaidi, head of Ticketmaster’s Artist Services division, who in October 2019 pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud in the system. Zaidi was the supervisor of Stephen Mead, a former CrowdSurge executive, according to reports.
“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly – and illegally – accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to illegally collect business information,” said Seth DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. of New York, in the press release. In addition, Ticketmaster employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ in which stolen passwords were used to gain access to victim company computers, as if it was a business tactic. appropriate. Today’s resolution demonstrates that any company that obtains a competitor’s confidential information for commercial gain, without authorization or authorization, should expect to be held accountable in federal court. “
A request for comment to Ticketmaster was not immediately responded to Thursday. “Ticketmaster terminated both Zaidi and Mead in 2017, after their conduct came to light,” Ticketmaster said in an emailed statement to Billboard. “Their actions violated our company policies and were inconsistent with our values. We are pleased that this issue is now resolved.”
Although the DOJ did not identify the name of the competitor, numerous reports said it was CrowdSurge, based at DUMBO, where Mead worked from 2010 to 2012.
CrowdSurge has handled ticket sales for artists including Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire, Jack White, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Paul McCartney and The xx, according to Crunchbase.
Mead, who was hired by Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation in 2013, a year after quitting his job at CrowdSurge, has kept information about accessing CrowdSurge’s internal projects on the ticketing web pages, said the DOJ.
Variety reported that “Mead kept 85,000 corporate documents on his laptop after leaving his role as general manager of US operations for CrowdSurge. These documents included confidential business plans, strategic and financial information, contracts, client lists and dozens of usernames and passwords for confidential CrowdSurge tools. “
Although he signed a separation agreement in which he agreed to maintain the confidentiality of CrowdSurge’s systems, Mead used his access to monitor their current internal websites in order to “stifle” competition and “steal the internet. ‘one of (their) signature clients. “, According to the DOJ.
In 2014, Mead “emailed Zaidi and a second Ticketmaster executive several sets of usernames and passwords” to access one of CrowdSurge’s internal products. He “encouraged the leaders to” seize the hell of the system “, but also warned:” I must stress that this is an access to a live [victim company] I would be careful what you click on as it would be better not to [to] a gift that we nosy, ”the DOJ statement said.
In 2014, a senior Live Nation executive asked Mead to use his access during protests at a corporate meeting in San Francisco where, in front of at least 14 colleagues, Mead logged into CrowdSurge systems with his username and password kept, the DOJ said. . Mead was promoted in 2015 and received a raise for his work.
CrowdSurge merged with Songkick in 2015, terminating Mead’s access to internal systems, The Verge reported: “In 2017, Songkick sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for violating antitrust laws. But he quickly sold or closed his services, and in 2018 he agreed to a settlement of $ 110 million – plus an undisclosed sum to sell some of his remaining assets to Ticketmaster. “
In addition to criminal costs, under the deferred prosecution agreement, Ticketmaster is also required to maintain a compliance and ethics program and to report to the US Attorney’s Office for three years. If the company violates the terms of the agreement, the US attorney’s office will sue Ticketmaster on various charges of computer intrusion and wire fraud.
[ad_2]
Source link