The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fell victim to a SIM swap attack, resulting in a false tweet from their official Twitter account about Bitcoin ETF approval. This caused brief confusion and disruption in the cryptocurrency market.
On January 2023, the SEC released a statement addressing the incident. It was revealed that an unauthorized party had gained control of the SEC’s cell phone number associated with their Twitter account, allowing them to post a misleading announcement. This was possible due to the disabling of multi-factor authentication, despite previous recommendations from Chairman Gary Gensler.
The impact of the false tweet was significant, but fortunately, the SEC quickly resolved the situation and clarified that the official approval of Bitcoin ETFs would be announced the following day. However, this incident has raised concerns about the SEC’s cybersecurity measures, drawing attention from lawmakers such as Senators J.D. Vance and Thom Tillis.
