StubHub Users Seeking World Cup Tickets In Brazil Stymied By Cyber Attack

(Great Beyond)

Soccer fans (yes, other countries, we know you call it football) in Brazil trying to score resold tickets on StubHub in that country have been blocked from doing so after the site suffered a large denial-of-service attack and shut down. This, amidst the insistence of soccer’s governing body FIFA and the Brazilian government that all tickets to the upcoming World Coup tournament should come directly from FIFA.

Since official sales of tickets began in Brazil, there have been ticket resellers jumping on the wagon offering another option than buying right from FIFA, until the recent attack, that is, reports the Los Angeles Times.

StubHub confirmed a “huge DOS attack on the site from Brazil,” prompting it to shut down the site while it looks into the attack. Users on the site got an error message after the attack, while last week there were plenty of options for available tickets.

StubHub is somewhat unique in the ticketing world, as it guarantees all its tickets, a boon for those worried about scammers selling counterfeit tickets.

“All World Cup tickets are fully guaranteed, just like any other ticket on our site,” said a spokesperson. “We do quite a bit of cross-border trade from Brazil.”

While it sounds like the perfect setting for a bit of secret government intervention, a spokesperson for Brazil’s government says there had been no government action against either parent company Ebay or StubHub in Brazil.

At the same time, the rep reiterated that the Sports Ministry’s position on the whole ticketing thing is that match tickets should only be purchased from the official FIFA website. About 3 million Brazilians are expected to travel within the country for the games, many of which will be buying tickets, while organizers forecast about 600,000 foreign visitors will show up.

StubHub’s not throwing in the towel with all those millions to sell tickets to, and says it will once again offer tickets when the site is up and running again.

StubHub’s World Cup ticket sales in Brazil interrupted by cyber attack [L.A. Times]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist