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Congress Warns the SEC: Don’t Expose Americans to Chinese Hacking

People shouldn’t have to worry about their personal data being hacked when they’re working toward building up a financial portfolio or saving for retirement.



The Chinese government and hackers working on its behalf have already robbed U.S. government websites and databases of sensitive personal information of tens of millions of Americans. That’s why some in Congress are now objecting to a new database run by the Securities and Exchange Commission that collects the sensitive financial information of millions of American investors.


Seven Republican senators, led by John Neely Kennedy (La.), sent a letter Wednesday to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton objecting to plans for the new database — called the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) — designed to collect the personal identifiable information of every American who has money in the stock market. Following through on those plans would create a target that hackers from China or any other country would find too attractive to ignore, they argue.


The database “is just a sitting duck waiting for the Chinese to infiltrate,” Kennedy told me. “The CAT is a vulnerable target full of personal data, which makes it a very attractive target for Chinese hackers. . . . People shouldn’t have to worry about their personal data being hacked when they’re working toward building up a financial portfolio or saving for retirement.”


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