The Metropolitan Opera, also referred to as the Met, a world-famous New York City-based opera company, which is home to some of the most talented opera singers, conductors, and musicians worldwide, has revealed that hackers managed to gain access to the sensitive personal information of over 45,000 individuals during a cyberattack in December.
According to breach notification letters sent to affected parties, the Met was informed by third-party experts that an unidentified individual had gained unauthorized entry into some of their systems between September 30, 2022, and December 6, 2022. During this period, the unauthorized actor could obtain or extract certain data from those systems, as reported by the opera house, after conducting an investigation.
During the cyberattack, the organization reported that the personal data of 45,094 individuals had been compromised. This data included names, financial account details, tax identification numbers, Social Security numbers, payment card information, and driver’s license numbers.
The organization has taken steps to assist the affected individuals, such as providing free identity monitoring services from Kroll for one year. Furthermore, the victims have been informed of the necessary steps to protect themselves, such as placing fraud alerts or security freezes on their credit files.
In December, the opera house reported that the cyberattack had affected various network systems, such as the website, box office, and call center. As a result, the organization was unable to process new ticket orders or handle refunds and exchanges for several weeks.
During the cyberattack, the general manager, Peter Gelb informed the employees that the organization would be unable to process paychecks and that all internal systems, including the internal email system, were not functioning. The Metropolitan Opera has not commented on whether the attack was ransomware-related or whether the information compromised pertained to customers in addition to employees. However, on March 1, the Snatch ransomware gang claimed responsibility for the incident.
