A recent SEC report identifies a string of avoidable technical failures within the agency’s Office of Information Technology as the cause of the permanent loss of nearly a year’s worth of former Chairman Gary Gensler‘s official text messages. The document frames the loss as an operational deficiency rather than evidence of external compromise.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reports that the missing communications encompass messages sent and received on the former chairman’s government phone between October 18, 2022 and September 6, 2023, and that the agency considers those records irretrievably lost according to the filing.
The report’s release has prompted market speculation and intensified scrutiny of regulatory recordkeeping and cybersecurity practices, raising questions about transparency and compliance controls at federal oversight bodies.