SEC Confirms No System Breach After X Account Hack

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official X (formerly Twitter) account, @SECgov, got hacked on Tuesday showing a fake announcement about the approval of several spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications. The SEC has since confirmed that their systems and devices were not compromised during this incident.

The false tweet appeared at 4:11 p.m. ET, and within 15 minutes, SEC Chair Gary Gensler corrected the misinformation. The SEC staff maintained control over the account, promptly deleting the erroneous post and addressing the situation on their primary account.

Investigations by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are ongoing. The SEC clarified that the tweet was not a mistakenly released pre-prepared announcement. The incident raised concerns about cybersecurity practices at the SEC, prompting Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis to call for an inquiry into the breach and the SEC’s cyber defenses.

Contrasting the Tuesday’s incident, the SEC legitimately approved a series of bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday, which started trading the following day. This occurrence underscores the SEC’s ongoing commitment to cybersecurity, as they continue to evaluate the impact of the breach on the agency and public markets.