The official Twitter account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was hacked due to the absence of two-factor authentication.
A few hours ago, the official Twitter account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was compromised, announcing the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Initially causing excitement and commotion among the public, it quickly became apparent that the account had been hacked, and the announced news was fake. Now, Twitter’s security team has stated that the lack of activation of two-factor authentication (2FA) led to the compromise of this account.
The official account of the SEC had announced a few hours ago that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds had finally been approved. However, as soon as this information was released, Gary Gensler, the SEC chairman, informed that the SEC’s account had been hacked, and the previous statement was inaccurate. Subsequently, an SEC spokesperson also informed CNBC that an individual with an unknown identity had gained access to the commission’s account.
How did the SEC account get hacked?
In response to the hacking of the SEC’s account, Twitter’s Safety account confirmed that hackers had accessed the SECGov@ account. However, it has been stated that, based on preliminary investigations, this intrusion was not due to vulnerabilities in Twitter’s systems. Instead, it occurred through gaining access to the registered phone number for this account.
In other words, the SEC’s account did not utilize two-factor authentication (2FA), and that’s why hackers were able to access it. Twitter’s security team has advised all users to activate this security feature in their accounts.
With the dissemination of this false news, the price of Bitcoin increased, but with the revelation of the truth, it quickly decreased. This incident has raised new questions about the security measures of the SEC as one of the most powerful financial regulators in the United States. U.S. Senators J.D. Vance and Tom Tillis have requested an explanation from the SEC in a letter, stating, “It is unacceptable for the regulatory body of the world’s financial markets to make such a gross mistake.”