United States Senators J.D. Vance and Thom Tillis have urged the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide a detailed report on the recent breach of its X account. The breach, which occurred on January 9th, caused a stir in the markets when the official SEC account on X erroneously announced the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF.
In a letter to the SEC, Senators Vance and Tillis expressed their serious concerns about the breach and questioned the commission’s internal cybersecurity procedures. They described the incident as being in direct opposition to the SEC’s mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation. The senators also highlighted the confusion the incident caused in the markets and set a deadline of January 23rd for the SEC to submit a report on the incident.
The breach in question happened when the SEC’s X account tweeted that the SEC had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. This news was later debunked by SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who revealed that the SEC’s X account had been compromised and used to send out the false tweet. This revelation led to criticism of the SEC’s preparedness for online threats and cyber-attacks. An internal investigation found that the SEC’s X account was not using two-factor authentication at the time of the breach and that the compromise was due to a bad actor gaining control of a phone number associated with the account, rather than a breach of X’s system.
Following the incident, politicians and lawyers have called for a full investigation into the SEC. US Senator Bill Hagerty stated that just as the SEC would demand accountability from a public company for such a significant market-moving mistake, Congress also needs answers. Senator Cynthia Lummis echoed this sentiment, calling for transparency from the SEC. Charles Gasparino from Fox Business reported that securities lawyers had told him that the SEC would have to investigate itself for market manipulation. US Representative Ann Wagner described the incident as a clear case of market manipulation that affected millions of investors and expressed her intention to seek more answers from Chair Gensler on the incident.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Thom Tillis, Bill Hagerty, Ann Wagner, Cynthia Lummis, J.D. Vance, Gary Gensler, Charles Gasparino |
| Companies | United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Fox Business |
| Currencies | Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
