Dems want answers on national security risks posed by hiring freeze, DOGE probes Elected officials are demanding answers as to whether the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are hamstringing US national security. In a pair of letters sent to Charles Ezell, Office of Personnel Management acting director, and Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, Democrats on the …
"As of today the scope of DOGE's access only seems to be expanding," the letter continues, adding that despite its growing grip on the federal bureaucracy, Congress hasn't been told who has been hired, how their regulatory authority has been granted, or how the group "is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans' personal information."
Every security professional's nightmare - people you don't know, whose security clearances you cannot check, and whose IT equipment has not been issued by someone who can provide security assurances, gaining physical access to your sensitive storage, complete with their mobile phones, smart-watches and heaven knows what else.
I worked for a while in a genuinely secure office. All electronic equipment (except, presumably heart pacemakers) had to locked in safes outside the room. There was a vestibule area. No-one was allowed to take IT equipment out of the office (unless authorised by SysAdmin).
You simply do not allow unaccredited people access with their own laptops to that sort of system.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/06/trump-musk-support-poll
"
In a letter published on Thursday, the members of the House oversight committee say they are worried that Musk and his operatives have illegally accessed classified information and sensitive personal data at agencies including the office of personnel management (OPM), the US treasury and the US Agency for International Development (USAid).
“There is no evidence that he, or any of his associates working under the ‘Doge team’ moniker, are entitled to access our government systems, nor is there any evidence that they have undergone the proper vetting to ensure the security of taxpayer and government data,” the letter said.
"
As a former System Administrator and Information Security consultant to UK Government Departments, Agencies and their suppliers, my sympathies lie with the staff trying to implement and follow their Departmental security procedures. I can only hope that the DOGE employees have not brought in any malware.
Now imagine that cocksure kids who definitely won't accidentally the database are sat with full access deleting and updating rows by hand at the console on no sleep and 5 hour energy drinks with no oversight.
It is going to cost a lot of money to hose the shit off the walls, and that's assuming they aren't inadvertently dropping additional fun from their locally installed warez.
BYOD - Bring your own disaster.
Every security professional's nightmare - people you don't know, whose security clearances you cannot check, and whose IT equipment has not been issued by someone who can provide security assurances, gaining physical access to your sensitive storage, complete with their mobile phones, smart-watches and heaven knows what else.
But enough about Clinton, her unauthorised Crackberries, her 'hacks' and her unauthorised mail server in her basement that comingled personal and classifed information. Or enough whataboutery. But Warner is an arch self-publicist who helped extend the 'Patriot Act', which helped extend surveillance powers over err.. patriotic Americans. He also was actively involved in anti-Huawei legislation and other protectionism efforts, but then having made his fortune from telecomms, that's perhaps unsuprising. Don't buy evil Chinese kit, buy blue-blooded 'merican stuff like Cisco.. Which is made err.. where?
But I digress. It'll be interesting to see what the response is to Warner, which might be along the lines of 'now you're asking?' or just pointing out that staff with direct access are vetted, unvetted staff won't have direct physical access to sensitive storage, and phones, smart watches etc will be left in the lockers provided. Or should have been provided. But it's not like there haven't been previous leaks, or scares about leaks due to staff having personal electronic devices where they shouldn't.
And in other news, on the left side of the planet, the sky is still falling..
It's interesting you use the phrase 'whataboutery' in your entirely whataboutist argument. Also please edit your posts so they're not a complete wall of text. We take pride in the signal to noise ratio here. Perhaps hit the bong after you post, not straight before.
Amateur.
Also please edit your posts so they're not a complete wall of text. We take pride in the signal to noise ratio here.
Translation: You have the attention span of an amoeba, and having been raised on a diet of 140 characters or less, can't actually read.
So, whatabout any evidence that Federal staff or contractors aren't actually being held to Federal security standards? I know that after years of leaks, hacks and generally lax security, this is something of a.. foreign concept. But such is politics. Warner probably doesn't care what the response to his demands are, he just wants the demands out there so the media picks them up and runs with them. But Warner, along with Schiff as top Demorats on the Senate Intelligence Committee presided over a period when that Committee leaked like a sieve.
No, you can't whatabout a rebuttal to whatabout, because we're not talking about that, and you are still deflecting from the topic. This is how focused discussion works.
Still too long, plus an ad-hom, and you're spraying your slime everywhere. Jellied Eel? more like Hag Fish.
It's almost like you're not taking anything seriously at all.
No, you can't whatabout a rebuttal to whatabout, because we're not talking about that, and you are still deflecting from the topic. This is how focused discussion works.
I'm not deflecting at all. The US government was full of leaks, it might now still be full of leaks. The people with access to sensitive data might be vetted, and have to follow Federal security guidelines. Or laws. So if any data are classified, then they (should) be handled as such, and failure to do so can mean jail. Unless you're a Clinton, or a Biden, but that's just the rank hypocrisy that characterises the left/right divide.
Still too long, plus an ad-hom, and you're spraying your slime everywhere. Jellied Eel? more like Hag Fish.
Uhuh, and so of course you add another ad-hom of your own. So mature, so civilised, so far so normal for the far-left. As for length, one can assume from your remarks that you didn't actually bother reading the original article because that was rather longer than any of my replies..
See another article on this site concerning DOGE: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/06/federal_court_leashes_doges_tresury_access/
"It was reported earlier that Elez, at least, had gained sysadmin-level access to Treasury systems, as a DOGE operative, and had already pushed code direct into production there to make it easier to block payments."
Jaw Drops In Amazement.
Let me get this straight, someone has implemented code on a live system handling highly sensitive financial transactions without official SysAdmin approval, testing, or specification????
Sorry, I need a little lie down now.
And now this:
25-year old Marko Elez resigned from DOGE today after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics.
I guess the vetting of DOGE's Nazis was second to none! Let's make Government more efficient, Ku Klux Klan-style, with some good 'ole South-African Apartheid-inspired White Power cleansing, heh!
I'm sure there were "very fine people on both sides", again! </puking blood!>
And in breaking news:
Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) on Thursday announced to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that she is leaving the fledgling, efficiency-seeking DOGE Caucus in Congress — and she directly blamed billionaire Elon Musk’s actions in President Donald Trump’s second term for her resignation.
Hoyle argued it is “just not possible” for the bipartisan group of lawmakers that make up the caucus to have any success with their mission to cut fraud and public spending waste and be “good stewards of taxpayer dollars” when Musk is just “blowing things up.”
“It’s like trying to replace your roof when someone is throwing dynamite through the window into your living room,” she said.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/lawmaker-quits-doge-caucus-live-110839165.html
Explosion icon, obvs.
In answer to your question, see, for example:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/20/cybertruck-failures-tesla-elon-musk
This gives me no pleasure, I had a nightmare last night that Trump / Musk and DOGE devastate the US Federal Agencies to the extent that there are mass disturbances in US Cities, Trump declares a nationwide national emergency, invokes martial law and suspends all federal elections, including to the office of President. While the US Army are busy maintaining peace, China talks over Taiwan, Israel annexes the West Bank, the Abraham accords break down and there is general chaos. Please tell me it won't happen.
DOGE could manage to flub some bond payments, setting off a US default that makes the Turkish lira look similar to the USD. The money-bags would not like that at all!
Musk was blabbering about something irregularities in some bond payments, so the monkey had found the pin on the grenade.
Badly wrong.
Things that can be placed at the feet of Musk and his little band of racist bros, and therefore at the feet of Trump. People need to have their tax refunds delayed by a year, social security payments to stop, rural hospitals forced to close because of Medicare reimbursement delays, etc.
People who voted for Trump need to start feeling real pain as a result of his dementia addled "hiring" of Musk. Yes that means all the people who didn't believe in the orange cult leader will be hurt too, but that's what is required to stop this insanity.
Exercising second amendment rights might do it without having to harm the innocent, the half of America who never voted for this shit show, hate nazis and racists as much as any sane person can
So you seem to be advocating the shooting of people who disagreed with your politics? Of course this is pretty much what Himmler did when rounding up political opponents and imprisoning them. Thus demonstrating you have a slim grasp of democracy, history and probably also sanity.
To be fair, the perception is that the whole system has become so ossified, so encrusted with stuff that happens because it's always happened, and little projects that are nothing to do with running a country, that doing the IT thing of just switching it off and seeing what stops working is the only solution.
USAID was a really bad case of that.
There are organisations who have become comfortable with the constant drip of State cash who need to have hard questions asked.
If they just reviewed everything, 40 years would not be enough to review each one.
That may be true, but the way it is happening is unconstitutional. Congress appropriates and authorizes funds to be spent and the executive branch can't just stop. The current Congress might be complicit with this, but they don't have the guts to pass legislation that does the same.
That may be true, but the way it is happening is unconstitutional. Congress appropriates and authorizes funds to be spent and the executive branch can't just stop.
See, this is what happens when you ignore the Constitution for administrative convenience. 1961 saw the Foreign Assistance Act, then JFK created USAID by Executive Order, and perhaps didn't forsee it funding regime change operations, or just Politico. The EO creates, the EO can taketh away. As long as the Act remains, there's nothing unconstitutional. Well, unless perhaps it discovers USAID wasn't acting in ways it was authorised to do under the Act.
The current Congress might be complicit with this, but they don't have the guts to pass legislation that does the same.
I think it's also a lack of spine. But the legislative branch is free to pass laws. Might have to explain why foreign aid shouldn't be under the State Department, which is, after all the constitutional body that is meant to be responsible for US foreign relations etc. But Congress has been complicit in many things, like using USAID funding to interfere in US elections. Especially after the last time Trump threatened to 'drain the swamp'. This time, Trump has come out swinging and is draining the swamp of their cashflow.
But the TL;DR is assorted swamp critters really, really don't want an audit. Less than a month in to Trump's 2nd term, and already they're running scared. Wonder why?
"There are organisations who have become comfortable with the constant drip of State cash who need to have hard questions asked."
USAid? Nah. I think people don't understand what USAid is about or why that sort of thing is important, but then I guess the sort of president who sees the Gaza strip as "real estate" potential would utterly fail to comprehend something like USAid.
If you really want to sort out the parasites drinking the available cash, let's start with Boeing, General Motors, Boeing, Tesla, Boeing, Intel, Boeing, Amazon...and of course Boeing.
The irony being that USAID is a way of tunneling subsidies to US farmers to dump cheap food on 3rd world countries, destroying the local agriculture. While propping up whichever dictator said the right things against Moscow and pro Nestle.
An organization that the left has been fuming against for decades.
There is still a better than evens chance that he defunds the DoD by accident and the USA unilaterally nuclear disarms when an intern deletes the DoE.
The curious question that seemed to be overlooked assuming the inspectors (?) are honest is how the cutting would be done. By contract its 'last in first out' so the person that is up on the lastest M$ bull will go and the Fortran guy who tends the two machines out in nowheresville but is necessary for the processing of all the cost saving forms initiated by LBJ will stay or will it be the opposite. The Feds have such a range of systems to cover every Pols pipe dream the idea of efficient cutting implies brain surgery on oneself by watching Carry on Doctor.
At this point in time secure means we will worry about it later on the political front
