Eileen Sullivan reports:
Employees with the Department of Government Efficiency who were detailed to the Social Security Administration last March shared sensitive data through a nonsecure third party server, in violation of agency security policies, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing.
The Social Security Administration does not know what data was shared on the server or whether it still exists there, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 16 formal correction to statements that Social Security Administration officials made to a federal court in Maryland last spring.
But the disclosure about the third-party server confirms concerns among career government employees and data security experts that DOGE’s chaotic access to sensitive government data risks sharing this data broadly and without knowing what data was exposed or who has seen it. Last August, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, shortly before resigning, filed a whistle-blower complaint over DOGE employees’ activities, saying they had shared a crucial database on a private server.
Read more at The New York Times.