Colorado distributes voting system passwords
Date
11/2/2024 10:10:21 AM
(MENAFN) The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has acknowledged a significant blunder involving the accidental posting of a document that contained multiple passwords for its voting systems. The incident was confirmed by state authorities on Tuesday, highlighting concerns about election security.
According to officials, the problematic document was a spreadsheet found on the Department’s website, which improperly included a hidden tab containing partial passwords for specific components of Colorado’s voting systems. Upon discovering the breach, the Secretary of State’s Office acted swiftly, notifying the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency about the oversight.
Spokesman Jack Todd addressed the situation in a press release, assuring the public that the breach does not present an immediate threat to the integrity of Colorado's elections or the ballot counting process. He emphasized that the passwords in question represent only one layer of the security measures in place to protect state elections.
Each piece of election equipment in Colorado is secured with two unique passwords that can only be used when there is physical, in-person access to the voting systems. Furthermore, the equipment is safeguarded by video surveillance and requires ID badges for entry. Todd underscored the seriousness of unauthorized access, noting that it is classified as a felony.
The issue was exacerbated when Colorado Republican Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman circulated an email containing the file with the hidden tab. This email included an affidavit from an unnamed individual who claimed to have downloaded the document from the state’s website and accessed the hidden information by simply using the 'unhide' function in Excel.
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