Warner urges vigilance to protect sensitive data following news of SEC hack

WASHINGTON – Senate Cybersecurity Caucus co-founder Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Thursday urged government agencies as well as businesses to take extra precautions to protect sensitive electronic data following news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had been hacked last year.

“The SEC’s disclosure, which comes not even two weeks after Equifax revealed that it had been hacked, shows that government and businesses need to step up their efforts to protect our most sensitive personal and commercial information,” Warner, a Senate Banking Committee member, said in a statement.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in a Wednesday statement said that last August the agency “learned that an incident previously detected in 2016 may have provided the basis for illicit gain through trading.”

In the statement, Clayton explained that “a software vulnerability in the test filing component of the Commission’s EDGAR system, which was patched promptly after discovery, was exploited and resulted in access to nonpublic information.”

Clayton said he does not believe that the breach led to the release of “personally identifiable information,” and went on to explain in the statement that “an internal investigation was commenced immediately” following discovery.

Clayton is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

The SEC is tasked with monitoring securities transactions and investigating cases of potential fraud.

This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News