Musk's "move fast, break things" ethos threatens U.S. security
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Silicon Valley's speed-over-safety mindset is colliding with Washington's reality that messing with government IT can open the door for China, Russia, and other adversaries to infiltrate critical U.S. systems.
Why it matters: On-the-fly overhauls of government IT systems are putting Americans at risk, lawmakers and former officials tell Axios.
Driving the news: Media reports continue to emerge that suggest the employees on Musk's team are unqualified and can become national security vulnerabilities themselves.
- Wired reported that one member has connections to a Telegram-based cyberattack-for-hire service. That same person was also fired from a cybersecurity internship for disclosing company secrets to a competitor, Bloomberg reported Friday.
State of play: DOGE has reportedly either already gained access or is eyeing access to sensitive federal systems, including those handling Social Security, Medicare, and national infrastructure. Agencies affected include the Treasury Department, Energy Department and the Office of Personnel Management — and others that handle classified and highly sensitive data.
- DOGE is also reportedly building a custom chatbot called GSAi for the U.S. General Services Administration that would analyze procurement documents and government contracts, per Wired.
- Some reports say a DOGE staffer has at one point used personal Gmail accounts to access government meetings and AI tools hosted on commercial cloud services.
Between the lines: Government agencies move cautiously on IT for a reason: one mistake can cost lives, said Jake Braun, a former White House deputy national cyber director.
- "If you're creating a dating app, you can move fast and break things," Braun said. "If you have a badge, a gun, nuclear weapons and things like that, maybe moving fast and breaking things isn't the most prudent approach."
- Typically, major IT modernization decisions are made through a lengthy interagency process where officials get feedback and weigh the benefits and consequences of such decisions.
- That process is "all these really boring things that everybody hates that makes us feel slow, but it also makes us not start World War III or have a whole bunch of people on Medicaid die because their prescriptions weren't covered appropriately," Braun added.
Threat level: If DOGE wasn't careful, they could have created several new vulnerabilities that could endanger national security, experts say.
- The DOGE employees could quickly export sensitive information for their own political benefit to weaponize against federal employees, political dissidents, journalists and other high-risk groups.
- And they could reconfigure government systems so they no longer have essential network segmentation tools that limit hackers from breaking into other agencies' networks after getting into part of a system.
What they're saying: "Giving Elon Musk's goon squad access to systems that control payments to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other key federal programs is a national security nightmare," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Axios in a statement.
- "Every hour, new disturbing details emerge to prove that these guys have no business anywhere close to sensitive information or critical networks," Wyden added. "Sham security clearances handed out by Trump to unvetted hatchet men make it even more likely that America's enemies will capitalize on this security breach."
- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that Trump has "empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate."
The intrigue: DOGE's work "risks overriding all the things we put in place to protect Americans," Suzanne Spaulding, a former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary overseeing cyber issues, told Axios.
- "When you break things, the ones who suffer are the American people," Spaulding said.
Reality check: Even before the Trump administration returned to the White House, Chinese government hackers were lurking throughout U.S. systems.
- The Treasury Department was already responding to a "major" China-linked breach of its networks. Hackers even gained access to former Secretary Janet Yellen's email inbox, Bloomberg reported.
- U.S. officials have been warning for years about China's ongoing operations to break into water utilities, ports and other critical infrastructure with the goal of shutting them down whenever they want.
What we're watching: Courts are beginning to limit DOGE's access, but experts warn the damage may already be done. "It could take years for us to find all that and fix it," Spaulding said.
