SEC reveals SIM swap attack behind false Bitcoin ETF approval announcement
A SIM swap attack on the U.S. SEC’s Twitter account led to a false tweet about Bitcoin ETF approval , briefly disrupting the cryptocurrency market. On Jan. 10, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) experienced a cybersecurity breach, resulting in a misleading tweet about spot Bitcoin ETFs from its official account. This incident, caused by a SIM swap attack, briefly stirred confusion in the cryptocurrency markets. The SEC explained the situation in a statement: “The unauthorized party obtained control of the SEC cell phone number associated with the @SECGov account in an apparent ‘SIM swap’ attack .” This allowed the attack er to reset the Twitter account’s password and post the false announcement . The SEC also admitted that multi-factor authentication, a crucial security feature, was disabled for its Twitter account since July 2023. This decision contrasts with the general cybersecurity recommendations previously endorsed by SEC C...
