Asset Management Partner Paulita Pike Quoted on Charges Brought in SEC Hack

The SEC has filed charges in New Jersey District Court in connection with the 2016 breach of the agency’s EDGAR system, disclosed in 2017. Articles published by Law360, Reuters Regulatory Intelligence and two pieces published by Compliance Reporter include insights from asset management partner Paulita Pike.

The charges represent “a good step in shoring up public confidence in the ability of the SEC to protect sensitive information,” Ms. Pike stated in Reuters Regulatory Intelligence. “Complaints like the one brought against these hackers send an important message about the ability of the SEC to find and prosecute hackers. Equally important, though, are the defenses in place to prevent such attack,” Ms. Pike continued. What is “less clear is how robust the SEC’s systems were at the time of the hack, whether and how they have been strengthened since and how secure they are considered by today’s standards.”

In Law360, Ms. Pike outlined that “Evaluating whether somebody's cybersecurity controls and program is robust enough is a little like evaluating compliance and whether that's robust enough.”