Friday, March 29, 2024

The US Securities and Exchange Commission investigates SolarWinds customers’ cyber violations: Report | Business and Economic News

Must Read

According to Reuters, the SEC is concerned that some listed companies may not disclose cyber hacking in December, which violated the law.

Reuters quoted two people familiar with the investigation as saying that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into the SolarWinds network vulnerabilities last year, focusing on whether some companies failed to disclose that they were affected by unprecedented hacking attacks.

People familiar with the matter said on Monday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission sent investigation letters to some public issuers and investment companies late last week, asking for voluntary information about whether they were victims of the hacker attack, but failed to disclose. survey.

The agency is also seeking information on whether the victim’s listed company has internal control failures, as well as information on insider trading.

One of the people familiar with the matter said that the agency is also studying the policies of certain companies to assess whether they are designed to protect customer information.

The press office of the US Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

A spokesperson for SolarWinds, which provides a range of IT software, networks and systems, said in a statement: “Since we learned of this unprecedented attack by a foreign government, our priority has been to work closely with our customers. To understand what happened and take remedial measures. Problem.”

The statement stated that the company also “cooperated with government agencies in a transparent manner.”

US securities laws require companies to disclose important information that may affect their stock prices, including cyber vulnerabilities, although cybersecurity disclosure failures are still a relatively new area of ​​enforcement for the SEC.

In December last year, U.S. regulators discovered that foreign participants’ damage to the SolarWinds software allowed hackers to access the data of thousands of companies and government agencies that use their products. News of the hacker attack caused SolarWinds’ stock price to plummet, while cybersecurity stocks rose.

The United States and the United Kingdom accuse Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) as the successor to the KGB’s foreign espionage activities. Hackers have hacked into nine U.S. federal agencies and hundreds of private U.S. companies.

People familiar with the matter said that if issuers and investment companies respond to these letters by disclosing detailed information about violations, they will not be subject to enforcement actions related to historical errors (including internal accounting control errors).

People familiar with the matter said that although the focus of these letters is SolarWinds’ violations, the SEC may formulate future policies regarding the impact of cybersecurity issues on the market and investors.




Source link

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest News

How to smooth out rough skin on your face

Rough, scaly, sandpaper-like skin is bad enough on the elbows, knees, hands and feet. When it shows...

More Articles Like This