Whistleblower Warns DOGE Secretly Building ‘Master Database’

Elon Musk’s task force aimed at shrinking the U.S. government is building a “master database” containing troves of sensitive data from across federal agencies, according to new congressional whistleblower information, in a move that likely violates privacy laws and data security regulations.

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The Department of Government Efficiency has raised significant cybersecurity concerns since whistleblower reports and federal lawsuits began exposing how its staffers gained access to federal systems in recent months (see: Whistleblower Complaint Exposes DOGE Cybersecurity Failures). DOGE operatives have violated federal cybersecurity protocols and data protection laws at agencies like the National Labor Relations Board, according to one whistleblower, who (see: accused the task force of a data-harvesting cover up.

A separate whistleblower report provided to Democratic staff of the House Oversight Committee included “disturbing” information indicating that DOGE is putting Social Security Administration operations and services at risk, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said in a letter to the SSA’s inspector general’s office. DOGE is reportedly “engaged in an unprecedented effort to build a massive database using data from SSA and across the federal government,” read the letter from the committee’s senior Democrat.

“During its short existence, DOGE has established a track record of extreme negligence and an alarmingly cavalier attitude with respect to protecting Americans’ sensitive data,” Connolly wrote to Michelle Anderson, assistant inspector general for audit. He added that DOGE has allegedly “exfiltrated sensitive data to artificial intelligence companies that have not received proper vetting for use by the federal government” while flouting federal data access controls and exposing critical systems to potential foreign attackers.

Connolly said the committee has learned of repeated IT failures at SSA, including breakdowns in batch jobs critical to running the agency and collecting data from over 3,000 interconnected systems. The issues come as the Trump administration has reportedly cut nearly 7,000 positions and plans to fire another 25% of staff managing SSA’s data systems, according to the letter.

The letter raises concerns about “a massive overhaul of SSA IT systems” dubbed “SSA 2.0” – a little-known plan to apparently “rapidly rip out and replace critical IT systems without adequate planning and preparation.”

The letter comes after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against DOGE, requiring its staffers to undergo training and background checks before accessing data from agency systems that has first been stripped of personally identifiable information. U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander previously issued a temporary restraining order against DOGE staffers at SSA after lawyers representing the task force failed to justify their access to the agency’s sensitive records (see: DOGE Blocked From Social Security Data Over Privacy Concerns).

Connolly said the committee has learned that DOGE engineers attempted to develop specialized computers capable of accessing federal networks and databases across agencies – a move he said “would pose unprecedented operational security risks and undermine the zero-trust cybersecurity architecture that prevents a breach at one agency from spreading across the government.”

Connolly urged the SSA watchdog to probe how DOGE personnel were granted access to agency systems, and to assess whether DOGE altered, deleted or restructured any SSA datasets or information. The letter also demands information on what SSA data and data from other agencies have been aggregated to create the master database, and whether those transfers complied with privacy act and data security laws.

“I have significant concerns that DOGE could cause irreparable damage to Social Security, particularly if allowed to operate in the dark, shielded from necessary oversight and transparency,” Connolly wrote.