SolarWinds executives receive Wells notice from US SEC (updated)

SolarWinds

24/06/2023 05:22

(Added statement from SolarWinds in paragraphs 3-4)
       June 23 (Reuters) - SolarWinds  SWI.N  said on Friday
some of its former and current executives had been issued a
Wells notice by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over
a massive 2020 data breach tied to the software firm. 
    A Wells notice does not necessarily mean that recipients
have violated any law. The SEC issues Wells notices to firms
when it is planning to bring enforcement action against them.
    "We are cooperating in a long investigative process that
seems to be progressing to charges by the SEC against our
company and officers," a SolarWinds spokesperson said in an
emailed statement. 
    "SolarWinds has acted properly at all times by following
long-established best practices for both cyber controls and
disclosure," the spokesperson said. 
    The company was at the center of a cybersecurity crisis in
December 2020, when hackers compromised SolarWinds software
updates and used them to access data of thousands of companies
and government offices that used its products. The U.S.
government has attributed the hack to Russia. 
    In November last year, the SEC recommended an enforcement
action against the software firm over its public statements on
cybersecurity and procedures governing such disclosures.

 (Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by
Maju Samuel and Tom Hogue)
 ((Samrhitha.A@thomsonreuters.com))