X reveals SEC account breach stemmed from unprotected phone number

Quick Take

The safety team of X said that someone took control of a phone number associated with the SEC’s account, and the account “did not have two-factor authentication enabled.”

X, formerly known as Twitter, confirmed in a post that the X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was compromised earlier today as someone obtained control over a phone number associated with the account.

The safety team of X said today that it has completed a preliminary investigation into the event after the SEC claimed that its X account was compromised to tweet a fake post on the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

“Based on our investigation, the compromise was not due to any breach of X’s systems, but rather due to an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party,” the X team said.

X’s security team noted that the SEC did not set up two-factor authentication for its account when it was compromised.

It is widely expected that spot bitcoin ETFs will likely be approved by the U.S. financial regulator on Wednesday with trading set to commence the following day.

The price of bitcoin spiked to around $47,900 following the fake announcement before dipping to around $46,100 on Wednesday at noon Hong Kong time.

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