US SEC says breach of X account did not lead to breach of its broader systems

WASHINGTON :The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said there was no evidence to suggest the breach of its X account earlier this week also involved a breach of the agency’s systems, devices, data or other social media accounts.

The fake post on Tuesday said the SEC had approved trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), sending industry executives scrambling. Bitcoin prices had whipsawed ahead of an expected announcement on Wednesday by the agency to allow trading of the products.

“While SEC staff is still assessing the scope of the incident, there is currently no evidence that the unauthorized party gained access to SEC systems, data, devices, or other social media accounts,” the SEC said in a statement.

The SEC quickly disavowed and deleted the post. X, formerly Twitter, later said the account was compromised because of an “unidentified individual” obtaining control of a phone number.

The SEC did approve the bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday.

The SEC said the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has joined the FBI and the SEC’s inspector general in investigating the breach.