Mar. 14, 2022
March 14, 2022 Public Comment on Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure (Part II) Taking the anecdote that Chairman Gensler has shared in public statements of the French brothers who bribed a telegraph operator as the first ever hack all the way back in the 19th century, the global financial system itself has been hacked. Chairman Gensler has also expressed publicly that payment for order flow (PFOF) is a clear conflict of interest. Practices such as ex-dividend plays border on insider trading and are the closest modern-day analogue to this anecdote. As such, with “cyber exploits” being as rampant as they are, it is difficult at times for the average citizen or consumer to place much credence in anything a public or private institution, agency, or company has to say. The very nature by which we define our world and ourselves in it seems to have itself become “the hack”. We must return to the great ideals upon which this nation was founded. When President Biden said that we are in a battle for the very soul of this nation, that was not hyperbole. Failure to act in a meaningful way will be quite damning for all of us, perhaps in the most literal way. Accordingly, current practices and methodologies would seem to infringe on the freedom of the American people to worship as they see fit. Our best course of action is to act on the supply side of this black market by healthily resolving such malevolent intentions in the hearts and minds of individuals and illicit organizations alike on a global scale. Jean-Paul Tres