The Securities and Exchange Commission erased nearly a year's worth of text messages from former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's government-issued mobile phone due to a "poorly understood and automated policy," the agency's inspector general said in report.
The IG reported Wednesday that it undertook a review "to determine what happened and why, how the agency responded, and any implications for federal records management."
"On Jan. 17, 2024, the SEC's Office of Information Technology (OIT) reported to us that, about four months earlier, the agency erased nearly a year’s worth of text messages sent and received by the then SEC Chair, Gary Gensler," the report states.
OIT’s decisions and actions resulted in the inadvertent loss of text messages sent and received by Gensler between Oct. 18, 2022, and Sept. 6, 2023, the report states.
"Specifically, in August 2023 OIT implemented a poorly understood and automated policy that caused an enterprise wipe of Gensler’s government-issued mobile device," according to the report.
"The device was erroneously thought to be inactive and no longer in use, and OIT had not backed up the device for nearly a year."
In an effort to recover from the enterprise wipe, "OIT hastily performed a factory reset, which deleted text messages stored on the device and the device’s operating system logs," the report continues. "OIT’s response to this incident culminated in a contractor-produced afteraction report at an estimated cost of about $53,000. However, inadequacies in the report impacted its reliability and usefulness."
Furthermore, the report states, "because OIT did not collect or maintain necessary log data, neither OIT, its contractor, nor we could determine why Gensler’s device stopped communicating with the SEC’s mobile device management system, which caused the device to appear inactive and led to the enterprise wipe."
A series of additional "OIT actions, deficiencies and missed opportunities, including a lack of backups and procedures that failed to consider record retention requirements for Capstone officials (such as Gensler) exacerbated the situation and hindered the SEC’s response," the IG reported.
"Although the SEC took steps to recover or recreate the deleted text messages, the agency was unable to collect or determine the entire universe, including some federal records."
The IG reported that since it was notified, "the SEC has disabled text messaging agencywide (with some exceptions), notified the National Archives and Records Administration in June 2025 of the lost records, and taken additional steps to back up Capstone officials’ records and data, among other actions."
However, the loss of Gensler’s text messages may affect the SEC’s response to certain Freedom of Information Act requests.
"While some matters we identified did not warrant recommendations, we are recommending specific actions to further strengthen the SEC’s management of mobile devices and federal records," the IG states.
"These actions include updating or developing plans, policies and procedures related to change management, Capstone officials’ devices, and the system used to manage mobile devices, among other topics."
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