Cybersecurity
SEC Had a Fraught Cyber Record Before X Account Was Hacked
- Agency’s X hack on Tuesday shines light on security gaps
- Watchdog said the agency wasn’t adhering to all standards
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The hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account earlier this week is shining a light on an uncomfortable truth: Cybersecurity measures at Wall Street’s chief regulator have repeatedly been found to be lacking.
The agency wasn’t fully adhering to federal cybersecurity standards, including a requirement that public-facing systems support multifactor authentication, as of a review by its internal watchdog last year. A separate, independent evaluation performed a year earlier identified weaknesses in security measures at the commission, such as protocols for preventing unauthorized access to networks.