INTIX, the leading trade show for ticketing industry innovations, held their 45th annual conference in Vegas last week, bringing together a global community to discuss the evolution of the ticketing industry and showcase the latest innovations and visionary ideas.
It is hard to ignore how much the digital world has influenced event-goers’ expectations as well as the technology that organizations have to adopt to keep pace. INTIX’s agenda was filled with sessions focusing on this evolution, with an underlying message that technology – mobile apps, engagement, activations, and seamless payments – is the secret ingredient to elevating the consumer experience.
Leading ticketed event organizers across the country are integrating these tools into their entire experience, offering their fans a new level of personalization that add more value to attendees and enhance future events. What this ultimately means is that more consumer data is being collected and stored, presenting a massive opportunity for organizers to drive revenue – and for cyber thieves to steal sensitive data.
Cybersecurity Threats are Costly
ITRC’s 2023 Annual Data Breach Report validates that cyber threats are real for organizations, with record high data 3,205 publicly reported data compromises, impacting 353,027,892 individuals – a 72% increase in events over the previous high-water mark and 78% over 2022. Cyberattacks – phishing, ransomware, malware – were the number 1 attack vector in 2023, with 2,365 breaches and 343,338,964 victims recorded.
Costs of a breach add up quickly. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report revealed that the average cost in 2023 reached a record-high of $4.45 million. It’s not just payment data cyber thieves are after. Personal identifiable data (PII) – social security numbers, passport information, credit card details, banking records, and medical records – was stolen in 52% of data breaches, costing companies $183 per record in 2023.
Protecting All Patron Data
Cybersecurity was addressed at the conference, stressing the importance of cybersecurity, however, with technology advances in ticketing primarily focusing on the consumer experience, it seems that data security has taken a back seat.
Bluefin, a pioneer in safeguarding sensitive data and exhibitor at INTIX, offered insight on the need to secure all types of patron data.
“As the ticketing landscape gets more and more competitive, and the customer experience continues to level up, one blind spot that has emerged is the security of both payment and PII data. Additionally, in the post-covid era, ticketing venues are going cashless & contactless. Having these methods of payment options is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for customer satisfaction. For many years, Bluefin has completed integrations with many of the leading ticketing platforms to help address this blind spot via secure payment acceptance, helping secure not just payment data, but personal data. When a customer can securely pay for an event, attend and enjoy their time there, and know their information is secure – everybody wins.” – Terry Ford, SVP Security Solutions, Bluefin.
To secure data, Ford explains that there are two ways organizations can mitigate cyber threats – defending the data or devaluing the data. Implementing multi-factor authentication, regular security audits, employee training programs, and collaborating with cybersecurity experts to stay informed about the latest threats are all good practices to defend valuable data. However, with continued record-high compromises and sky-rocketing breach costs, hackers continue to find ways to breach networks and steal valuable data. Devaluing data, using PCI-validated point-to-point encryption and vaultless tokenization technologies, renders sensitive data useless to hackers in the event of a breach.
Ford addresses how Bluefin’s solutions can help to solve the problem of payment security.
As the case has been since Bluefin’s origin and entry into the validated P2PE space, we are constantly in the process of adding partners through our proprietary gateway, PayConex, as well as our best-in-breed and exclusive decryption-as-a service product, Decryptx – which allows us to partner with other payment gateways. We are the only validated P2PE provider that is able to that, and it affords us the ability to be processor agnostic, device agnostic, and ultimately service all customers in a matter that they see fit. – Ford
Learn more about Bluefin’s PCI-validated P2PE and vaulted tokenization solution, ShieldConex to devalue your data today.