An Australian music festival has been hit by a major data breach, in what is a second blow to the festival after several headline acts pulled out of the lineup, prompting refund demands.
The Pandemonium Rocks music festival, which included acts such as Blondie, Alice Cooper and Wolfmother, was made aware of the data breach only one day before the festival was set to go ahead in Melbourne, with about 400 ticket holders requesting partial refunds when seven of the thirteen acts withdrew from the line-up.
Event organisers blamed a clerical error for the breach, in which ticket holder’s personal details, including names, bank details, phone numbers and email addresses, were visible on an online form from 5.47pm until 7.20pm on Friday.
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“Pandemonium sent a partial refund request form to ticket holders (via email),” the statement released on social media read.
“Unfortunately, the admin tab on that form was left on, which meant that if a person specifically selected the results tab, information from people who had already filled in the form became visible.
“All people within that timeframe who filled the form will be contacted by pandemonium directly ASAP to notify them that their data was made public during that window and to advise their banks to update their information.
“We are sincerely sorry for the angst this has caused.”
Refunds were offered to ticket holders after several headline acts withdrew from the lineup, with international stars Deep Purple, Placebo, the Dead Kennedys, and Palaye Royale all taken off the bill.
The cancellations meant the event went ahead with “alterations”, with Pandemonium Rocks organisers downsizing the festival to a single stage at venues in Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and Newcastle.
“Urgent do not add in details for bank reimbursement, the information isn’t secure, I’m not happy,” one person warned on social media.
“I transferred all our money out of my account I used into a different account just in case,” said another.
Event organisers had previously refused to speak to the media, after rumours the event would be cancelled began to circulate, turning off comments on social media and slamming news reports as “misinformation, rumours and conspiracy”.
