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Colorado Lawmakers Battling Millions Of Daily Cyber Attacks

DENVER (CBS4) - State lawmakers say Colorado isn't doing enough to protect confidential government information, but a new bill could change that.

There are reportedly six to eight million attempts every day to hack state offices.

cyber attacks
(credit: CBS4)

"They're looking for you private, personal information. They're looking for state records," said State Senator Kent Lambert (R) of Colorado Springs.

lambert
CO State Sen. Kent Lambert (R) (credit: CBS4)

"Some of them may want to get into your health records, some may want to get into your voting records. So we need a comprehensive look across all of our departments at how we protect that data, how we handle the data more efficiently," said Lambert.

To prevent beaches, lawmakers introduced legislation aimed at improving the security of state data to prevent cyber attacks.

It would direct $250,000 toward the development of cutting-edge encryption technology.

Lawmakers say the encryption technology would become a model for other states.

The bill has bi-partisan support, and passed its first committee on Wednesday.

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