Clothing marketer Guess Inc. will tighten security for its Web site to resolve federal charges that it failed to protect customer credit card information from computer hackers.

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that Guess misled visitors to its Web site with promises that personal information would always be protected in a secure form that couldn't be read by hackers. The FTC said the information was vulnerable to common hacker attacks and last year one Internet intruder accessed customer credit card numbers.

"Companies have an obligation, particularly when they promise security, to take steps to make sure that obvious vulnerabilities aren't there," said Howard Beales, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "They need to lock the doors."

The Guess Web site has been vulnerable to attack since at least October 2000, the FTC said.

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