SEC leaked crypto miners’ personal information during investigation: Report

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has reportedly leaked the names and email addresses of many crypto miners connected to blockchain firm Green.

According to a Jan. 17 report from the Washington Examiner, the SEC unintentionally included 650 names and email addresses in an email communication with Green as part of an investigation, leaving the blockchain’s nodes vulnerable to hacks. The financial regulator had reportedly been reaching out to Green users regarding their purchase of the firm’s products.

“The Privacy Act of 1974 […] prohibits the disclosure without consent of information about individuals that the federal government maintains in a system of records,” said the SEC website. “If we store information about you in a system of records from which we retrieve that information by personal identifier […] we will safeguard your information in accordance with the Privacy Act.”

Hackers have often targeted centralized crypto exchanges to obtain information about users, but alleged unintentional leaks by government officials are less common. In October, the U.S. Justice Department announced charges against two Chinese intelligence officers who allegedly bribed a double agent with Bitcoin (BTC).

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The SEC has also executed several crackdowns on crypto firms in 2022 in what many critics have called the agency taking a “regulation by enforcement” approach. In December, the financial regulator added its name to the list of federal agencies behind charging former FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging violations of the anti-fraud provisions of securities laws.