Credit card info of Pierce County ferry riders compromised

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The credit card information of roughly 2,100 people who used Pierce County's ferry system has been made public online.

The News Tribune reports that affected users were informed Tuesday that issues with a third-party vendor hired to build an online ticket site for the ferry system resulted in the leak. The vendor reportedly did not secure its site properly.

County spokeswoman Libby Catalinich says the county is offering free credit monitoring to affected riders, though there is no evidence of any inappropriate access.

"I am writing to let you know that personal information collected when you created an online account for purchasing Anderson/Ketron Island ferry tickets may have been subject to fraud," Ferry Chief Operating Officer Dan Grimm said in an email to those impacted.

County officials learned of the error last month via Twitter when someone posted the credit card information was in the open for everyone to see.

The website has since been fixed and is now secure.