SEC releases initiatives to fight cyber crime and protect retail investors

One of them consists in the creation of a Cyber Unit that will focus on targeting cyber-related misconduct and the establishment of a retail strategy task force that will implement initiatives that directly affect retail investors.

The other initiative is called Retail Strategy Task Force and aims to develop proactive, targeted initiatives to identify misconduct impacting retail investors. The Enforcement Division has a long and successful history of bringing cases involving fraud targeting retail investors, from everything involving the sale of unsuitable structured products to microcap pump-and-dump schemes.

This task force will apply the lessons learned from those cases and leverage data analytics and technology to identify large-scale misconduct affecting retail investors. The task force will include enforcement personnel from around the country and will work with staff across the SEC, including from the SEC’s National Exam Program and the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.

The Cyber Unit will focus on targeting cyber-related misconduct, such as:

• Market manipulation schemes involving false information spread through electronic and social media 

• Hacking to obtain material nonpublic information

• Violations involving distributed ledger technology and initial coin offerings

• Misconduct perpetrated using the dark web

• Intrusions into retail brokerage accounts

• Cyber-related threats to trading platforms and other critical market infrastructure

The unit aims also to implement an internal cybersecurity risk profile and create a cybersecurity-working group to coordinate information sharing, risk monitoring, and incident response efforts throughout the agency.