It was the start of a “Cruel Summer”—indeed, a cruel year—for some Taylor Swift fans hoping to catch her Eras Tour. Not in their “Wildest Dreams” did they imagine the tickets they bought on StubHub would disappear, leaving only a “Blank Space” in their accounts.
Yet that’s what happened. Cyber criminals stole and resold more than 900 digital tickets between June 2022 and July 2023.
The theft of these high-profile, high-priced tickets highlights online ticketing platforms’ need for Cyber Liability Insurance.
This important insurance allows companies hit by cyber threats to do much more than “Apologize” or say, “Don’t Blame Me.” It gives them the protection and resources they need to mitigate the financial damage, let alone the “Bad Blood,” these incidents can cause, and to “Begin Again.”
Ticketmaster Also Hit by Cyber Incidents
StubHub isn’t the only ticketing platform troubled by cyber events.
In the fall of 2024, would-be concertgoers who’d used Ticketmaster found their accounts had been compromised and their tickets transferred out.
Online ticketing platforms have worked with customers, law enforcement, and financial institutions to retrieve, replace, or refund stolen tickets. Even so, incidents like these highlight platforms’ need to have Cyber Insurance in place.
Because these services store and handle consumers’ sensitive information, especially payment information, they’re natural targets. Indeed, earlier in 2024, the ShinyHunters threat actor group claimed responsibility for breaching Ticketmaster. ShinyHunters stole and put up for sale the personal data of 560 million customers, including emails, phone numbers, and credit card numbers.
7 Ways Cyber Insurance Helps Ticketing Platforms and Your Clients
Your clients may not be in the ticketing business. But no matter their sector, they probably have online dealings with customers, and they collect, use, and store customers’ sensitive information.
Cyber Liability Insurance offers a safety net when cyber incidents happen.
A robust Cyber Liability policy provides financial resources for meeting the frequently high costs associated with ransomware attacks, data breaches, and other incidents.
It can also give access to the expertise and tools needed for efficient data recovery and restoration, helping platforms mitigate these incidents’ adverse effects.
What are some specific costs Cyber Liability Insurance policies cover? They include costs associated with:
Fraudulent or Unauthorized Transactions
Fraudulent sales are a particularly pressing problem for online ticketing platforms, as the StubHub and Ticketmaster Taylor Swift stolen tickets illustrate.
However, unauthorized funds transfers strike organizations of all sectors and of every size. Cyber Liability Insurance can involve reimbursement for financial losses due to fraudulent transactions.
Forensic IT Investigation
Cyber policies often cover the costs of hiring IT specialists to recover and restore lost or compromised data. In cases like that of the StubHub stolen tickets, this coverage could prove vital, since online ticketing platforms, like many other companies, may not have in-house expertise in data breach forensics.
Forensic IT investigation allows policyholders to move more quickly to retrieve or reconstruct stolen information. It can also pinpoint a breach’s cause and scope. Having this information can help organizations prevent similar incidents going forward.
Lost Income
The criminals in the StubHub case sold the stolen Taylor Swift tickets and those for other events at inflated prices, turning a profit of more than $600,000. The final amounts these losses cost StubHub and Ticketmaster aren’t readily available, but the criminals’ resale success shows the significant amounts of money at stake.
Cyber Insurance can help cover lost income, including income lost due to business interruption and downtime.
Third-Party Liability
Many ticketing platforms partner with third-party vendors for payment processing and other services. The perpetrators in the StubHub stolen tickets incident allegedly used a third-party contractor’s access to the platform’s computer system.
Cyber Insurance can protect against claims arising from a breach caused by one of these partners. The policy ensures the platform isn’t solely liable for security failures outside its direct control.
Ransomware Payments
ShinyHunters put a price of $500,000 on the data it stole from Ticketmaster. It also demanded a ransom to avoid the data’s release.
Despite efforts to combat it, ransomware continues to grow as a threat to online transactions and sensitive data. Cyber Insurance can cover the cost of ransoms paid, sometimes the fastest way to release information and resume normal operations.
Reputation Management
Ticketmaster was already struggling against negative consumer perception before the data breach. In the breach’s aftermath, it was especially important for the platform to notify affected customers, assure them their accounts remained secure, and offer them a free year of identity monitoring.
Cyber Insurance often includes coverage for notification efforts, credit monitoring, and other crisis management strategies and public relations campaigns to help restore and protect the reputation of organizations affected by cyber incidents.
Legal Fees and Judgments
After the Ticketmaster breach, customers filed a class action lawsuit against it and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, alleging the platform hadn’t implemented “adequate and reasonable cyber-security procedures and protocols.”
When cyber incidents lead to legal claims or lawsuits, Cyber Insurance can pay for legal defense costs, settlements, or judgments.
Get the Cyber Protection Your Clients Need With ProWriters
As cyber risks grow more sophisticated and pervasive, businesses must do all they can to protect digital assets and safeguard customers’ information.
When you become a registered ProWriters broker, you can position yourself as your business clients’ vital partner in this effort.
Our Digital IQ Comparative Rate Platform allows you to generate multiple Cyber Liability Insurance quotes from the industry’s leading carriers in mere minutes. You can easily customize policies, prepare quotes for quick side-by-side comparison, and place the specific risk your client faces at a competitive rate.
You’ll also earn higher commissions than traditional wholesalers offer, as well as benefit from the valuable resources and expert guidance we make available.
Grow your Cyber book of business with us and help your clients get the protection they need. Then, should a cyber incident strike, they can start to “Shake It Off”—reducing the harm it causes, restoring their reputation, and reinforcing their security against future events.
