U.S. SEC claims tech failures led to loss of relevant Gensler texts

The ￰0￱ and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Wednesday it lost nearly a year’s worth of text data from its former Chair Gary ￰1￱ agency’s Office of the Inspector General implicated tech failures for the loss of ￰2￱ report revealed that Gensler’s SEC-issued smartphone was functioning normally and was used regularly until July 6 2023 when it encountered some tech ￰3￱ OIG also highlighted that Gensler’s smartphone had stopped syncing with the agency’s device management ￰4￱ introduces policy that wipes devices not connected for 45 days The report revealed the agency’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff failed to notice that the phone was showing an inactive status in the 62 days that ￰5￱ OIG later introduced a policy on August 10 that automatically wipes any device that has not connected for 45 ￰6￱ agency’s independent watchdog launched the initiative

arguing that devices might be lost or ￰7￱ rule also led to Gensler’s phone being ￰8￱ former SEC Chair arrived at the agency’s headquarters on September 6 2023 and found his device lacked the SEC’s ￰9￱ inquired for help from the agency’s IT staff who investigators said were unaware of what had ￰10￱ office permanently deleted text messages from October 18

2022 through September 6 2023 while performing a factory reset in a bid to restore the ￰11￱ of significant events leading to the loss of Gensler’s text messages.) The Office of the Inspector General said missed warnings and poor vendor coordination mainly compounded the ￰12￱ agency also blames the AAR

whose purpose was to review why Gensler’s device stopped communicating with the SEC’s mobile device management ￰13￱ change-management practices in the agency which caused the enterprise wipe were also flagged as a catalyst for the ￰14￱ agency also argued that a lack of backups and procedures that failed to consider record retention requirements for SEC officials heightened the situation and hindered the watchdog’s ￰15￱ plans steps to back up its officials’ records and data According to the report the SEC disabled text messaging features in its entire staff’s devices agencywide after the National Archives and Records Administration notified the agency in June 2025 of the lost ￰16￱ agency also said it plans to take necessary steps to back up its officials’ records and data

among other ￰17￱ agency revealed that the loss of Gensler’s text messages may impact its response to certain Freedom of Information Act ￰18￱ SEC also recommended specific actions including updating or developing plans policies and procedures related to troubleshooting activities on its officials’ devices and the system used for device ￰19￱ agency aims to complete the action by November 2025

with the OIG evaluating that the proposed actions are ￰20￱ OIG hopes the recommendation is resolved and will be closed upon verification of the action ￰21￱ OIT reviewed about 1,500 messages recovered from Gensler’s records and determined that the majority were federal ￰22￱ to the agency’s review nearly 38% of the recovered text messages were determined as mission-related and concerned matters directly involving the SEC’s ￰23￱ you're reading this you’re already ￰24￱ there with our newsletter .