Doge agents accessing government personnel data raises security concerns

Washington — Agents working for billionaire Elon Musk have accessed highly restricted government records on millions of federal employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing four US officials with knowledge of the developments.

The records accessed by Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge) included Treasury and state department officials in sensitive security positions, according to the newspaper.

The Post cited records it had obtained showing several members of the Doge team run by the billionaire were granted “administrative” access to OPM computer systems days after Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

“That gives them sweeping authority to install and modify software on government-supplied equipment and, according to two OPM officials, to alter internal documentation of their own activities,” the Post wrote.

A representative for Doge did not immediately return a request for comment on details of the Post report. The White House has said Doge agents are working in compliance with federal law.

A White House official said the people who are doing this work have the proper clearances at the respective agencies, went through onboarding and have read-only access. Asked why they are looking at the records of security officials or staff at all, the official said looking at the organisational charts is part of every restructuring.

Musk, the Tesla owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2-million member government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency.

OPM systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.

Core units focused on modernising OPM’s network and improving accountability are “likely to go away”, one senior agency official said during a team meeting on Wednesday, according to a recording obtained by the newspaper.

Halting IT upgrades and giving access to OPM systems to outsiders who could install new programs could pose cybersecurity risks for an agency that has been repeatedly hacked by foreign intelligence services, the Post reported.

A senior OPM official, during a team meeting, said that core units focused on modernising the agency’s network and improving accountability are “likely to go away”, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Post. Those who have been reassigned at the agency include the chief information officer and CFO.

Some of the Musk team members were in their early 20s and came from positions at private companies, it reported. The Post cited one official as saying a young Doge team member screamed at senior developers and called them “idiots”.

Update: February 6 2025
This story has been updated with new information.

Reuters