SEC Social Media Account Hacked in SIM Swap Attack

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently revealed that hackers utilized a SIM swap technique to compromise one of its social media accounts. As a result, misleading information about the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was falsely posted.

Given the heightened speculation surrounding the SEC's decision on Bitcoin ETFs, the social media post, claiming to quote SEC Chair Gary Gensler, announced the approval of the ETFs. However, the SEC swiftly disavowed the post, clarifying that their account had been hacked.

In response to the erroneous announcement, the price of Bitcoin experienced significant volatility. Nevertheless, the SEC officially approved the ETFs later that same week.

In their investigation, the SEC is striving to determine how the attacker discovered the phone number associated with the X account and how they convinced the unidentified cell phone carrier to change the SIM. Once in control of the targeted phone number, the hacker successfully reset the X account password and posted the false tweet.

The SEC is actively continuing its investigation into this incident alongside its inspector general, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other relevant agencies.