Cat: Vendor security breach affected Visitors Center patrons

Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday that it recently received notice that one of its third-party vendors had a database security breach at the Caterpillar Visitors Center.

Vendini Inc., told the company the security breach involved customer personal and credit card data.

Vendini provides box office and online ticketing services to hundreds of entertainment venues across the United States and Canada. The breach potentially affects patrons who purchased tickets at the counter or online for the Caterpillar Visitors Center. Purchases made at the Caterpillar Merchandise Center, which is adjacent to the Caterpillar Visitors Center, were not affected.

"According to Vendini, the breach involved a hacker who accessed Vendini's systems that are used to sell tickets to its customers' events. Vendini has said it has actively cooperated with federal law enforcement authorities, engaged forensic and cyber security experts and implemented enhanced security designed to prevent a recurrence of this type of incident," Caterpillar said.

"No Caterpillar systems or hardware were impacted by the breach at Vendini," the company added.

Caterpillar is distributing this press release as a courtesy to patrons of the Caterpillar Visitors Center and is working with Vendini to ensure that Vendini provides all required notices to affected individuals, the company said.

For more information about this incident, Caterpillar Visitors Center customers are encouraged to view Vendini's communications at blog.vendini.com. Customers may also contact Vendini at www.vendini.com/info or by calling the following toll-free number: (800) 836-0473.

About the Author

Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).