The FBI has indicted a man suspected of being responsible for a hack that compromised the accounts of 127 million Ticketfly users.
Moulak O. Ishak allegedly hacked into Ticketfly's systems in 2018. Ticketfly punters who tried to purchase tickets for upcoming live gigs were greeted with a picture of the V for Vendetta character and the message "Ticketfly HacKeD By IsHaKdZ."
At the time of the attack, Ticketfly was owned by Eventbrite, which made the decision to temporarily take the platform offline in the wake of the breach. Eventbrite issued the online message, “Following a series of recent issues with Ticketfly properties, we’ve determined that Ticketfly has been the target of a cyber incident.”
Following the attack, Motherboard claimed that hacker IsHaKdZ told them via email that he had warned Ticketfly of a vulnerability that allowed him to take control of all the databases for Ticketfly and its website.
In what sounds a lot like a ransom demand, the hacker is purported to have told Motherboard that he offered to share details of the vulnerabilities with Ticketfly in exchange for 1 bitcoin but never received a reply from the platform's operators.
Following the hack, the personal details of six Ticketfly users were posted to a server as proof that IsHaKdZ's claims of being able to access the databases were real.
According to the indictment issued on February 18, the FBI believes that Ishak, using the pseudonym IsHaKdZ, attempted to extort money from Ticketfly over a five-day period.
Ishak has been indicted on one count of forfeiture and one felony count of extortion in relation to damage to a protected computer.
The alleged cyber-criminal has not been apprehended, though a warrant has been issued for his arrest. If caught and convicted of these charges, Ishak could face a fine of $250,000 and up to three years behind bars.
The indictment reads: "On or about 27 May 2018, and continuing to at least 31 May 2018, in the Northern District of California and elsewhere, the defendant, with intent to extort from Ticketfly money and other things of value, transmitted in interstate and foreign commerce a communication containing a demand and request for money and other things of value in relation to damage to a protected computer, to wit, Ticketfly’s servers, where such damage was caused to facilitate the extortion."