Twitter responded to allegations that the platform was responsible for a fraudulent tweet sent by an SEC account that falsely declared approval for 13 sites. Bitcoin ETFs Tuesday.
After conducting an initial investigation into the hacked account, Twitter’s safety team said that “the hack was not due to any breach in X’s systems, but rather due to an unknown person taking control of a phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party.” “.
Twitter Safety also highlighted in its tweet that the SEC account did not have two-factor authentication at the time of the hack, a security measure that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler previously recommended as a protection against identity theft and fraud. The safety team added: “We encourage all users to enable this additional layer of security.”
As the world waited to see if a spot Bitcoin ETF would finally be approved on Tuesday afternoon, a “hacked” SEC Twitter account said approvals had been fully completed. Bitcoin’s price has fallen from a two-year high of $47,680 to nearly $45,500.
After removing the fraudulent tweet, Gensler said the SEC had not approved any pending bitcoin ETFs.
“SEC Twitter account hacked, unauthorized tweet posted,” the SEC chief tweeted. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of exchange-traded products on a Bitcoin spot exchange.”
Late Tuesday, the SEC confirmed “unauthorized access and activity” on the agency’s Twitter account. Decryption The person/persons responsible for the unauthorized access have been terminated.
A statement from the regulator continued: “The SEC will work with law enforcement and our partners across government to investigate the matter and determine appropriate next steps related to both unauthorized access and any related misconduct.”
While Twitter did not provide further details about its findings, some on the site suggested that the attacker may have been involved in SIM theft, also known as SIM swapping. In this malicious attack, a hacker tricks a mobile phone service provider into transferring the victim’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by the hacker, allowing access to the victim’s phone calls, messages, and potentially online accounts.
Last January, the Twitter account of trading platform Robinhood was hacked by a SIM card hijacking attack and used to promote a counterfeit token and NFT scam.
Others Proposal An SEC employee could fall victim to social engineering, a psychological attack designed to trick individuals into revealing confidential information.