The Hamburg ticket sales office Kartenhaus informed its customers on Thursday that still unidentified culprits had stolen credit card numbers and billing addresses. Some 66,000 customers who purchased tickets with a credit card from the Kartenhaus.de website between October 24, 2006 and September 30, 2007 were affected. The only exceptions were credit card purchases of tickets to sporting events featuring Hertha BSC, HSV Handball, and Eisbären Berlin.
The parent company, Ticketmaster, advised customers to "check your credit card bills as soon as possible to identify any irregularities or abuse". It is still not known how the thief or thieves gained access to the data. Apparently only one server was affected. Ticketmaster Europe's Vice President, Tommy Higgins, said that as soon as the attack was discovered, an internal team was assembled to track down the security hole and to inform all necessary personnel.
The company says it has warned all of the consumers who may be affected and has set up a special web site to provide additional information. In the process, the firm says it has worked very closely with the banks and card issuers involved. A criminal complaint was also filed to bring the culprits to justice. Ticketmaster, which belongs to the IAC Group, took over Kartenhaus GmbH in November 2005. Ticketmaster sold some 128 million tickets in 2006 with a total value of more than 7 billion US dollars.