Technology
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Technology
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SEC hack result of ‘SIM swap’ attack, agency says |
The hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, earlier this month was the result of a “SIM swap” attack, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. |
An “unauthorized party” used SIM swapping to obtain control of the phone number associated with the SEC’s X account and reset the password, the spokesperson said. SIM swapping allows scammers to receive voice and SMS communications associated with a phone number by transferring the number to an unauthorized device.
The SEC spokesperson said access to the phone number occurred via the agency’s telecom carrier, noting there is no evidence the unauthorized party “gained access to SEC systems, data, devices, or other social media accounts.”
“Among other things, law enforcement is currently investigating how the unauthorized party got the carrier to change the SIM for the account and how the party knew which phone number was associated with the account,” the spokesperson added.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) for the SEC’s account had also been disabled at the request of the agency’s staff last July “due to issues accessing the account” and remained disabled until the hack on Jan. 9, the spokesperson said. “MFA currently is enabled for all SEC social media accounts that offer it,” they added. The SEC revealed its X account had been hacked earlier this month, after it appeared to approve several highly anticipated bitcoin investment funds.
While the agency quickly took down the fake announcement and replaced it with a disavowal, the breach prompted bipartisan criticism and calls for investigation, particularly after X revealed the SEC’s account did not have two-factor authentication enabled. |
Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we’re Rebecca Klar and Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future: |
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X owner and Tesla founder Elon Musk said Monday that diversity-oriented hiring practices are “fundamentally antisemitic” after he toured the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. “The diversity and equity, inclusion — we should always be, always be wary of any name that sounds like it could come out of a George Orwell book,” Musk said during an interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro at the European Jewish … |
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| Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the Justice Department (DOJ) on Monday calling for an investigation into a robocall using an imitation of President Biden’s voice, generated by artificial intelligence (AI), urging voters not to show up in New Hampshire’s Tuesday primary. Morelle, in his note to Attorney General Merrick Garland, said he is deeply concerned about the affects AI could have on the upcoming … |
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The world is 90 seconds away from global catastrophe on the Doomsday Clock, a dire warning but one that has not moved since last year, according to the annual update from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Global instability is being driven by Russia’s nearly two-year war in Ukraine, Israel’s war on Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack, proxy battles raging in the Middle East, nuclear powers failing on arms control talks, insufficient … |
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News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics: |
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Amazon fined $35M by French regulator |
Amazon was fined $35 million by France’s data privacy watchdog over its data gathering practices related to warehouse barcode scanners that tracked employee inactivity, TechCrunch reported. |
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AI image quiz underscores confusion concerns |
The New York Times published a quiz testing how users can differentiate artificial intelligence (AI) generated faces from real ones, highlighting how the technology can create confusion for people to decipher what is real and generated. |
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching: |
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The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on “AI in Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions” on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
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Branch out with other reads on The Hill: |
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How (and where) to watch Oscar-nominated films online |
The winner in the Oscar nominations race Tuesday after a bruising year for the film industry was “Oppenheimer” with 13 nods, followed by the otherworldly “Poor Things” with 11 and the period epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” with 10. 2023 was marred by strikes and work stoppages for the cinema world, … |
SYDNEY (AP) — A Russian national has been sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments for his role in a cyber attack that compromised the personal information of more than 10 million Australians. In October 2022, client data from Medibank, Australia’s largest health insurer, was released … |
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Two key stories on The Hill right now: |
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MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire political insiders are lowering their expectations for turnout in today’s primary, even as the secretary of state … Read more |
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President Biden on Tuesday directly blamed former President Trump, his likely general election opponent, for the erosion of abortion access across … Read more |
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Opinions related to tech submitted to The Hill: |
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You’re all caught up. See you tomorrow! |
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