[ISN] Rockies tix probe fails to round bases

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Wed Jan 09 2008 - 00:14:44 PST


http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7908099

By Bruce Finley
The Denver Post
01/08/2008

Nearly three months after the World Series online-ticketing fiasco, 
federal authorities have yet to identify anyone who perpetrated what the 
Colorado Rockies called a "malicious attack" on ticket-sales computers, 
and a state investigation has ended before it began.

"The Rockies never actually provided us with any complaint" about the 
system collapse, said Nate Strauch, spokesman for Colorado Attorney 
General John Suthers. "They didn't provide us with any information to 
initiate any investigation."

The FBI in Southern California is still investigating the overload of 
ticketing computer servers that prematurely shut down the first day of 
online sales. But no one has been identified as responsible for trying 
to defeat the technology restricting the number of tickets any one 
person could buy.

The federal investigation is based out of Southern California, where 
ticket contractor Paciolan is located, said FBI spokeswoman Laura 
Eimiller.

"The server was compromised. A violation of federal law was at play 
there. We are going to look into that and prosecute the individuals that 
were responsible," she said.

But changes may be in place before the Rockies can reach the World 
Series again.

Suthers will ask state lawmakers, who begin meeting this week, to make 
it illegal to tamper with online ticket-sales operations, Strauch said.

The Rockies' online-only ticket sales system failure on Oct. 22 left 
thousands of baseball lovers in a lurch.

When fans hoping to attend World Series games logged onto computers with 
credit cards at the ready, the system timed out or froze. Rockies 
staffers shut down sales for a day, then restarted the process with 
retuned servers and better results. The remaining tickets promptly sold 
out.

Rockies spokesman Jay Alves declined to comment Monday on the probe, as 
did Paciolan representatives.


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