Colorado Secretary of State’s Office accidentally posted a spreadsheet on its website with a hidden tab that included voting system passwords on Wednesday.

The Colorado State Department issued a statement and acknowledged that it is aware of the situation.

“The Colorado Department of State is aware that a spreadsheet located on the Department’s website improperly included a hidden tab that includes partial passwords for certain components of Colorado’s voting systems. This does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado elections, nor will it affect the way ballots are cast. are counted”, the statement says.

Spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State FOX31 said that the leaked partial passwords “do not pose an immediate threat to Colorado elections, nor will they affect the way ballots are counted.”

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The state office said Colorado elections include many layers of security and include two unique passwords for each piece of election equipment, which are kept in separate locations and owned by different parties.

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“It goes without saying how significant this is,” the Colorado GOP wrote to the Secretary of State’s Office. “We can only imagine that since last week’s discovery, you and your staff have worked tirelessly to fix these vulnerabilities.”

The state office added that passwords can only be used in person access to a voting system.

“Under Colorado law, voting equipment must be stored in secure rooms that require a secure identification badge to gain access. That ID badge creates an access log that tracks who enters a secure area and when,” the state office said.

According to the state office, there is also 24/7 video recording on all election equipment.

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“Clerks must maintain restricted access to secure polling areas and may share access information only with background-checked individuals. No person may be present in a secured area unless authorized to do so or supervised by an authorized person and background. verified employee,” the office explained.

The state office added that there are also strict chain of custody requirements that follow when a voting system component was accessed and by whom, stating that unauthorized access to voting equipment is an offence.

Each Colorado voter votes on a paper ballot, which is then audited during the risk mitigation audit to verify that the ballots were counted as the voter intended, the state office said.

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Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams called the possible exposure of election system passwords “shocking.”

“We hear all the time in Colorado from Secretary Griswold and Governor Polis that we represent the ‘Gold Standard’ for election integrity, a model for the nation,” Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams said in a statement to FOX31. “It can only be hoped that the Secretary of State’s posting of our most sensitive online passwords to the world will dispel this myth.”

Colorado Republicans also asked for confirmation or a plan on how “exposed systems” will meet or continue to meet the certification requirements of a “trusted build”, noting that a breach by a party with access to the BIOS can be difficult or impossible to identify.

“The department took immediate action as soon as it became aware of this and informed the Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, which closely monitors and protects the county’s critical security infrastructure. The department is working to remedy this situation where necessary.” , the state office said. said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Colorado Secretary of State and the Colorado GOP for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Source of the original article: Colorado Secretary of State’s website ‘inappropriately’ displayed partial passwords for voting systems