SEC.’s social media account hack sparked a brief Bitcoin craze.

The breach of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s official account on X has reignited worries about the platform’s security since its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022.

Hackers disseminated false information via the compromised @SECGov handle regarding an anticipated Bitcoin announcement by the SEC. This led to a surge in Bitcoin’s price and raised concerns among onlookers. The post falsely claimed the SEC had sanctioned exchange-traded funds for holding Bitcoin. The SEC removed the post approximately 30 minutes after its appearance.

X confirmed following an initial probe on Tuesday that the SEC’s account was compromised due to an unidentified individual gaining control over a linked phone number through a third party.

Additionally, the platform acknowledged that the SEC hadn’t activated two-factor authentication at the time of the breach.

Although X stated the compromise wasn’t due to a breach in its systems, security experts found the incident troubling.

According to Austin Berglas, a former cybersecurity official at the FBI’s New York office and a senior executive at BlueVoyant security firm, an event like this, which could manipulate the value of Bitcoin in the market, presents significant potential for misinformation.

Accounts on X (previously Twitter) can be hijacked via password theft or by deceiving users into revealing login credentials, similar to other social media platforms. Incidents of security breaches have occurred on X before, notably in 2020 when a teenager orchestrated a breach of Twitter’s internal network, taking control of numerous high-profile accounts, including those of former President Barack Obama and Musk, well before Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

An SEC spokesperson addressed the “unauthorized access” to its account by an “unknown party,” revoking the access and initiating an investigation with law enforcement and relevant government entities.

Source: Newsroom