Overview

• Four House Financial Services Committee Republican chairs wrote to SEC Chair Paul Atkins seeking explanations, records details and oversight plans tied to the loss.
• The OIG said an automated enterprise wipe set by the SEC’s IT office in August 2023 erased texts from October 18, 2022, to September 6, 2023 after months of unsynced status and missed alerts.
• The review reported outdated backups and weak change management, concluding key messages could not be restored.
• Investigators found some deleted messages involved business communications with commissioners and senior officials.
• SEC leadership acknowledged the failures and described steps to strengthen system controls and backups as critics cite a double standard given hefty recordkeeping penalties the agency imposed on firms.