DOGE operatives inside the Social Security Administration have access to ‘everything, including source code’
Experts with decades of experience at the agency are now worried that DOGE operatives working across multiple agencies increases the risk of SSA data being shared outside of the agency, or that their inexperience will lead to them breaking systems entirely.
In the SSA filing [in federal court in Maryland opposing a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions that would prevent DOGE from accessing SSA records], lawyers for the agency claim that the DOGE operatives have “no access to SSA production automation, code, or configuration files.” A previous sworn statement from Tiffany Flick, the agency’s former acting chief of staff, claims that its DOGE-aligned CIO, Michael Russo, was DOGE-aligned and demanded that [Akash] Bobba [who is listed as “Front Office” in the office of the CIO] be given access to “everything, including source code.”
Last month, president Donald Trump’s administration appointed Russo as the SSA’s new CIO, despite his having no apparent previous government experience. Russo came to DOGE from payments company Shift4, which was founded by Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominee to run NASA. The office of the CIO works on “implementation of a comprehensive systems configuration management, database management and data administration program,” according to the agency’s own website, and is responsible for strategic planning.
According to an affidavit filed on Friday as part of a lawsuit designed to halt what the suit called DOGE’s “unprecedented” seizure of SSA data, Flick outlined how she tried to educate Russo on how information at SSA is handled and the measures in place to prevent fraud.
“Mr Russo seemed completely focused on questions … based on the general myth of supposed widespread social security fraud, rather than facts,” Flick said, adding that Russo was unwilling to understand SSA’s complex systems and instead seemed fixated on conspiracy theories about fraud within the system, such as Musk’s claim that millions of 150-year-olds were receiving benefit payments. Flick also wrote that she was “not confident” DOGE operatives had “the requisite knowledge and training to prevent sensitive information from being inadvertently transferred to bad actors.” [Continue reading…]