Elon Musk's IT makeover concerns hit fever pitch
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For the past week, Americans have been bombarded with reports of Elon Musk and his team of 20-something IT workers allegedly gaining access to sensitive government systems.
Reality check: The speed at which the Department of Government Efficiency is moving is not normal. Many of these actions likely violate federal privacy and security laws.
State of play: Musk and his team have now infiltrated the Treasury Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Education, USAID and more.
- Musk has now set his sights on the FAA, and the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration fear they'll be next. DOL workers have already sued to block DOGE from accessing their data, which includes information about workers' compensation cases.
- On Tuesday, OPM made agency CIOs political appointees, stripping them of their previous impartiality.
- Meanwhile, Wired reported Thursday that one of Musk's allies was linked to a Telegram account that solicited a "cyberattack-for-hire service" in 2022. The same employee was fired from a cybersecurity internship in 2022 after leaking internal data to a competitor, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The other side: The White House insists Musk and his team have done nothing illegal.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he personally vetted Musk's Treasury hires and that no "tinkering" has occurred with the payment system.
- Musk also reportedly holds a top security clearance and is classified as a "special government employee."
Threat level: Experts warn that the national security risks are immense. Some reports say a DOGE staffer has used personal Gmail accounts to access government meetings and AI tools hosted on commercial cloud services.
- Before the Trump administration, Chinese hackers had already compromised Treasury networks and major U.S. telcos—including Trump's personal phone.
What we're watching: Courts are beginning to restrict some of Musk's access, and Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers about DOGE's security clearances.
Yes, but: Legal and congressional processes are slow — Musk's team may be able to exfiltrate data or deploy code before any real consequences materialize.
Go deeper: DOGE staffer with racist social media posts resigns
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