North Ferry Restores FerryPass After Weeks-Long Outage Tied to Cyber Disruption

North Ferry’s FerryPass online payment portal was brought back online March 3, restoring the Greenport–Shelter Island ferry company’s ability to sell and reload passes after a weeks-long outage, the company said. North Ferry General Manager Bridg Hunt said the disruption began when a third-party payment processor experienced a “system‑wide service disruption” on Friday, Feb. 6, and that the processor was later re‑certified, which ended the outage.

North Ferry notified pass users by email that online payments were not possible starting Feb. 6; an Instagram post from the company summarized the situation as: “The North Ferry company has suspended online payments following a ransomware attack on its payment processor that occurred on February 6.” The company’s notices and local reporting indicate customers were unable to load FerryPasses online during the intervening weeks.

Bridg Hunt characterized the incident to reporters as a “ransomware” attack and said federal investigators are involved, telling the Reporter that the matter is “in the hands of the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI.” Hunt has been the company’s public point person on the outage and the subsequent restoration of service.

On customer data, Hunt emphasized North Ferry’s payment practices as the basis for its security assurances. “That’s why we don’t take recurring charges,” Hunt said, explaining the company’s approach. He added, “As soon as a customer makes a transaction, the record is vaporized. We’re not storing customers’ information, so no card holder’s data was compromised.”

Company communications and local reporting state the third-party payment processor was re‑certified, which ended the disruption. “The third party company that processes the payments had been re-certified, ending the disruption,” the reporting noted, and FerryPass functionality was restored so customers can again load passes online.

North Ferry has not named the third‑party processor in its public notices, and the company’s email to pass users is the primary customer-facing record released so far. Bridg Hunt’s account places the investigation with federal law enforcement, and the company says its payment workflow does not retain cardholder details.

With FerryPass back online as of March 3, North Ferry resumed online sales and reloads for Greenport–Shelter Island service while the company and federal investigators continue to address the incident.