US Wall Street Regulator SEC Reveals it was Hacked!

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Wednesday, announced that its electronic data gathering, analysis and retrieval (EDGAR) system was breached last year allowing intruders to make an illegal profit via trading on the stolen information. EDGAR is an online database that is used to store documents filed by publicly traded companies.

SEC detected the hack last year but it wasn’t until last month that they learned about the possibility of hackers trading on that information to make profits.

A statement by SEC said: "In August 2017, the commission learned that an incident previously detected in 2016 may have provided the basis for illicit gain through trading. Specifically, a software vulnerability in the test filing component of our EDGAR system, which was patched promptly after discovery, was exploited and resulted in access to nonpublic information."

Jay Clayton, chairman of the SEC said in a statement: "Our investigation of this matter is ongoing, however, and we are coordinating with appropriate authorities. Cybersecurity is critical to the operations of our markets and the risks are significant and, in many cases, systemic."