Former Ticketmaster Executive Sentenced for Hacking Rival’s Servers

Stephen Mead, the former head of Ticketmaster, has been sentenced for hacking into the servers of a rival company, CrowdSurge. Mead, who previously held positions as a senior vice president for global operations and general manager for North America at CrowdSurge, joined Ticketmaster afterward. He allegedly accessed CrowdSurge’s system using IP addresses registered to Ticketmaster on at least 25 occasions between August 2013 and December 2015.

The Department of Justice reported that Mead’s actions significantly contributed to the collapse of CrowdSurge. In June, Mead pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions against the company. As a result, he was ordered to pay $67,970 (£52,000) and was sentenced to a year of supervised release.

Court documents revealed that Ticketmaster executives requested Mead to share intelligence about CrowdSurge’s operations. Consequently, Mead shared confidential spreadsheets, accessed password-protected information, and offered data on real-time ticket sales and performers working with CrowdSurge. Mead even instructed others to extensively capture CrowdSurge’s system data.

His co-conspirator and former superior, Zeeshan Zaidi, had previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud in 2019. During Mead’s time at Ticketmaster, he was promoted to the position of director of client services in the artist services division, directly reporting to Zaidi.

The Department of Justice stated Ticketmaster used CrowdSurge’s information to strategize competitive responses and secure pre-sale ticketing business, as well as to compare products and offerings.

The announcement of Mead’s sentencing follows recent controversies involving Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which impacted ticket sales for major events, including a much-anticipated Oasis reunion tour. In response to customer dissatisfaction, consumer rights groups like Which? have criticized Ticketmaster for lack of transparency regarding ticket price surges, suggesting potential violations of consumer protection regulations.