Coachella’s Site Was Hacked: Is Your Credit Card Info Safe?

In early March, several thousand Coachella.com accounts were compromised. This has left thousands of people in a panic over whether their bank accounts, payment information, and personal information are safe or not. This data breach leaked names, birthdays, phone numbers, and email addresses. So, to answer the question: your credit card information is likely fine. Lucky enough for the concertgoers, the ticket purchases are a separate entity from Coachella.com. This is a big reason why credit cards were not directly compromised from this hack.

Coachella Account Information for Sale

California State University (at San Bernardino) Professor, Tony Coulson, is a cyber-expert who was interviewed by a local CBS station in Los Angeles. He noted that the users’ information is currently for sale on the dark web for just a few hundred dollars. Hackers can purchase this information and subsequently enter your username into an algorithm that will help crack your bank password by continually guessing it on the website until they get a hit. As a result, it is urgent that you change your bank account information if it mirrors the information you used in your Coachella account.

Read More: Someone Hacked John Legend’s Twitter Account

Additionally, hackers have begun sending out malicious emails, masquerading themselves as Coachella staff. These emails will likely and ironically ask you to change your password to avoid hacking. The hacker will ask for your old account name, old password, and new password. Please be cognizant of the fact that Coachella will never ask for any personal information via email to avoid phishing scandals.

The Issue of Passwords

If you are one of those people who uses the same username and password for everything, from your bank account to your AOL or Gmail account, then you should seriously consider changing your password for everything. If a hacker has access to your username, for example, this can be an easy first step that allows the hacker to compromise your other accounts, including your bank account.

Passwords are not an area you should be slacking in: you should use strong, unique passwords for each account that you have online. If you have trouble remembering all of your various passwords and need some help, consider using a password manager to help secure your accounts.

While you may be safe from the direct hacking of the Coachella website, that does not mean that you are completely exonerated from malicious activity. Be sure to keep a different username and password for each website that you use.