About 15,000 people in Pueblo have had personal information -- including Social Security numbers -- exposed after jury files containing names of jurors were accessed externally, according to the Colorado Judicial Branch.

The CJB said that on July 27, the Colorado State Court Administrator's Office was contacted by someone in Alaska who, upon conducting an internet search, found a name in samples of Colorado jury files located on the Colorado Judicial Department's internal website.

The jury files contained 620,945 names and corresponding Social Security numbers and dates of birth, according to the CJB.

The internal and external access to all jury files located on the CJD's internal website was shut down immediately by the SCAO's technology department and, as a precaution, every person on the lists will receive direct communication from SCAO advising them of the exposure and how to monitor their individual credit information.

SCAO learned that four of 65 jury files containing 41,140 names had been accessed when the exposure was further researched.

The counties whose sample jury lists were known to be exposed were Pueblo, Crowley, Rio Grande and Weld.

There were 15,001 names exposed in both Pueblo and Weld Counties, 8,878 names in Rio Grande County and 2,260 in Crowley County.

The CJB said the information was inadvertently exposed and was not the result of any malicious attack.

"SCAO regrets this error and has taken the steps necessary to enhance the security of its Intranet (internal website)," the CJB said in a statement.

Individuals with concerns about the safety of their personal data can email jurydata@judicial.state.co.us.

Staff at local courthouses will not have information related to the incident.

ryans@chieftain.com