Republican lawmakers want answers on SEC social media hack — and soon

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee want the SEC to brief them on the recent hack of the agency’s social media account no later than next week.

In a letter sent Wednesday to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the lawmakers noted that, X, formerly Twitter, said a hacker used a phone number associated with the SEC account and that the federal agency did not have a two-factor authentication security feature in place to help prevent unauthorized access.

“This failure is unacceptable, and it is disturbing that your agency could not even meet the standard you require of private industry,” according to the group, which includes panel Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

The GOP lawmakers also made a not-so-subtle dig at the agency, citing its controversial new cyber incident disclosure rules and saying they “expect the SEC to hold itself to the same requirements that are imposed on companies throughout the country.”

Panel members called on the SEC to brief their staff “no later than” January 17 about how the breach occurred and what steps the agency will take to prevent another incident.

While the SEC account was compromised on Tuesday evening, it tweeted a message claiming the commission granted approval for bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be listed on national securities exchanges. On Wednesday, the agency actually did approve the listing of such funds.