Major U.S. Concert Promoter Suffers Data Breach

Austin-based promoters C3 Presents, the company behind the Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits festivals, suffered a major data breach last week. The breach appears to have occured following the physical theft of one of C3's internal servers in June and that the server appeared to be targeted by the thieves for its physical value rather than the value of the data it contained.

The company said that the data compromised in the theft "affected only present and former employees, independent contractors, and some third parties. This does not affect any ticket holders who purchased tickets for C3 events through Front Gate Tickets, nor does it affect anyone who has registered for the Cashless Wristband Program. This does not affect any ticket holders who purchased tickets for C3 events through Front Gate Tickets, nor does it affect anyone who has registered for the Cashless Wristband Program."

In a letter sent to potential victims of the data breach, the company said that compromised data came from "C3's present and former employees, independent contractors, and other such parties" and could include information such as "names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, government IDs, band routing information, credit/debit card information and passwords, position and salary pay information of C3 present and former employees and independent contractors."

The letter went on to note that the company had taken "immediate and significant steps to prevent a recurrence of this possible breach of security." The company also offered to pay for a one year enrollment in CSID's Breach Protector identity protection coverage at no cost to potential victims of the breach. – via Celebrity Access