Lawmaker Calls for Hacker Crackdown after Nasdaq Intrusion

Bob Menendez

Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, is urging U.S. securities  regulators to crack down on cyber criminals following reports that hackers tried to break into the trading systems run by Nasdaq OMX Group.

The senator sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, urging it to “consider investigating the extent to which hacking can disrupt trading platforms, both at Nasdaq and other exchanges as well, and what steps can be taken to prevent that,” Reuters reports.

Nasdaq OMX on Saturday confirmed in a statement it had found “suspicious files” on its U.S. computer servers and determined hackers could have affected the Director’s Desk, a communications platform that stores important information for more than 10,000 board members of several hundred Fortune 500 companies.

Menendez also said he wanted SEC to explore what policies, if any, exist at exchanges surrounding the disclosure of security breaches.

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