SEC Hacking Incident Under Investigation by FBI and Homeland Security

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Gary Gensler, recently provided an update in which he disclosed that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are aggressively investigating the hacking of the regulatory body’s Twitter account.

According to Gensler, the ongoing investigation into the illegal access to the SEC’s X account now includes both the FBI and Homeland Security. The hacked account was used last week to spread misleading information on the acceptance of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the spot market.

In spite of the hack, Gensler made it clear that there isn’t any proof the unapproved party was able to access any internal SEC systems, information, devices, or other social media accounts.

At 4:11 PM ET, the unauthorized post was posted, purporting to be the Commission’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. Two minutes later, another post with the phrase “BTC” was made and then removed. Using the stolen SECGov account, the unauthorized individual also liked two posts from non-SEC accounts. About thirty to sixty minutes after the hack was discovered, access to the X account was blocked.

Political Inquiry and Multi-Agency Coordination

Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis, among others, wrote the SEC after the event to inquire about how the intrusion happened in spite of the agency’s cybersecurity protocols.

Gensler stressed that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the SEC’s Office of Inspector General are just a few of the federal oversight agencies and law enforcement agencies with whom the SEC staff regularly cooperates. The goal of the multi-agency endeavor is to thoroughly look into the hacking issue.