Posted On October 24, 2022 Consumer Privacy & Data Breaches
On October 24, 2022, Vivendi Ticketing US, LLC filed notice of a data breach with the Texas Attorney General after information that had been entrusted to the company was subject to unauthorized access. Specifically, the breach impacted the See Tickets business. Based on the company’s official filing, the incident resulted in an unauthorized party gaining access to consumers’ names, addresses and financial information, such as credit or debit card numbers or bank account numbers. After confirming that consumer data was leaked, Vivendi began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals who were impacted by the recent data security incident.
If you received a data breach notification, it is essential you understand what is at risk. The data breach lawyers at Console & Associates, P.C. are actively investigating the Vivendi data breach on behalf of people whose information was exposed. As a part of this investigation, we are providing free consultations to anyone affected by the breach who is interested in learning more about the risks of identity theft, what they can do to protect themselves, and what their legal options may be to obtain compensation from Vivendi Ticketing US, LLC.
The available information regarding the Vivendi Ticketing breach comes from the company’s filing with the Texas Attorney General’s office. However, because the breach was only very recently announced and Vivendi has not yet posted notice of the breach on its website, information about what led up to the incident is sparse.
Currently, we know that the Vivendi breach exposed consumers’ names, addresses and financial account information.
On October 24, 2022, Vivendi Ticketing sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident. While the total number of people affected by the breach remains unknown at this point, there are reportedly 92,074 victims in Texas alone. Given this information, it is likely that the number of affected parties is in the hundreds of thousands.
Vivendi Ticketing US, LLC is a digital media company based in Paris, France. Vivendi maintains operations in television, film, video game, book publishing, print press, communication, tickets and video hosting services. See Tickets is Vivendi’s ticketing business, which sells tickets to a wide range of events, such as concerts, comedy shows, sports games and festivals. Vivendi’s See Tickets division employs more than 424 people and generates approximately $142 million in annual revenue. Vivendi as a whole employs more than 34,000 people and generates approximately $10 billion in annual revenue.
Last year, data breaches impacted the personal information of over 320 million individuals. While the methods that hackers use to carry out cyberattacks vary, the end result is always the same—consumers’ personal information ends up in the hands of criminals.
Given that data breaches are becoming more common and the fact that hackers are becoming more skilled at carrying out crimes of fraud against victims, it is essential that you know what to do in the event your information is leaked in a data breach.
The biggest—but far from the only—risk data breaches pose is that a hacker uses your personal information to steal your identity or sells your information on the dark web to another criminal. What the hacker then does with the information can vary from financial identity theft to healthcare ID theft, depending on the compromised data. While you can’t prevent a data breach from occurring, there are some steps you can take to reduce the chances of falling victim to identity theft or other fraud after receiving a data breach letter.
After receiving a data breach letter, the first thing to do is to carefully read the letter to determine what information was accessible to potential criminals. Depending on the type of data that was compromised will inform your response, and you may want to take additional steps to protect yourself. So, while the steps below apply to all data breaches, they are not an exhaustive list. This is especially the case if a breach involves highly sensitive information such as your financial account numbers or Social Security number.
Hackers usually try to use any stolen data as soon as they can. This is because they don’t want to give you the chance to close your account. Thus, many people notice fraudulent activity shortly after a breach. However, it may take some time for criminals to obtain other information they need to steal your identity or commit other types of fraud. Thus, it is imperative that you diligently check your online bank and credit card accounts, as well as your credit report. This includes checking accounts that were not compromised in the breach.
Credit monitoring is a fee-based service that helps keep you on notice when anyone tries to access your credit. Typically credit monitoring costs between $20 and $40 per month. However, companies typically offer victims free credit monitoring for a period of time—usually between one to two years. Additionally, there is no risk to signing up for free credit monitoring because doing so doesn’t impact your rights to bring a data breach lawsuit against a company that negligently leaked your information.
All three of the major credit bureaus will put a fraud alert or credit freeze on your credit account at no cost to you. A fraud alert notifies companies that you have reason to believe someone may try to fraudulently open an account in your name, putting them on notice and encouraging them to take additional precautions. A credit freeze takes this protection even further by preventing anyone from pulling your credit without your advance approval.
At Console & Associates, P.C., our consumer privacy lawyers monitor all security and data breaches to help affected consumers pursue their legal remedies. We offer free consultations to victims of data breaches and can explain your rights in clear, understandable terms so you can make an informed decision about how to proceed with your case. If you’ve been affected by the Vivendi data breach or any other data security incident, Console & Associates, P.C., will investigate your case at no charge and offer you thorough advice about how to most effectively proceed with your case. If you decide to bring a case, we only get paid if you do. If your claim is successful, any legal fees are either paid by the defendant or come out of the funds recovered from the defendant. If your claim doesn’t result in a recovery, you will pay nothing.
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