diff --git a/controllers/sopssecret_controller.go b/controllers/sopssecret_controller.go
index 50d578f0..670e0213 100644
--- a/controllers/sopssecret_controller.go
+++ b/controllers/sopssecret_controller.go
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ func newSecretForCR(
 	for key, value := range secretTpl.Data {
 		decoded, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(value)
 		if err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("newSecretForCR(): data[%v] is not a valid base65 string", key)
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("newSecretForCR(): data[%v] is not a valid base64 string", key)
 		}
 		strData[key] = string(decoded)
 	}