SEC Blames Tech Failures for Loss of Nearly Year of Gensler’s Messages

According to a recently published report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Inspector General (OIG), roughly a year's worth of text messages from former Chair Gary Gensler are permanently lost due to tech failures by the agency's Office of Information Technology (OIT). 

The information from Gensler's government-issued mobile device was lost due to a "poorly understood and automated" policy that was implemented back in 2023, which was meant to disable texting. 

The loss of the messages might affect the SEC's response to certain Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. 

What happened?

Gensler noticed that some SEC applications were missing from his smartphone on Sept. 6, 2023. It turned out that the data from his smartphone had been erased in accordance with the new policy. 

OIT personnel hastily performed a factory reset of the smartphone, which resulted in the permanent deletion of the device’s data. 

It is worth noting that the OIT had not backed up the text messages of the former SEC boss for nearly a year. 

In January 2024, OIT reported the fact that the messages sent between October 2022 and September 2023 had been erased. The OIG then undertook a lengthy review to determine exactly what happened. 

The OIG has come up with a series of recommendations that are meant to further strengthen the agency's management of mobile devices and federal records.