A new report claimed that federal workers in its human resources office have been locked out of access to a federal database of employees, citing the influence of members of an advisory group led by Elon Musk.
Musk heads the Department of Government Efficiency, which despite its name is not an official part of the federal government, but a non-governmental group designed to help President Donald Trump identify areas of waste and wokeness in the behemoth of the federal bureaucracy.
A report from Reuters, which is based on two “agency officials” who were not named, said that aides to Musk have locked federal employees out of some databases.
Details are sketchy, with some reports claiming vast number of workers were locked out of computers.
Incredible. DOGE has take command of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and changed all the passwords of every employee who has been working from home. These employees have lost all access to personnel databases and are no longer in control.
This is the reckoning. pic.twitter.com/ixqjFfdjMF
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 1, 2025
Reuters wrote, “Two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at [the Office of Personnel Management] have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems.”
The systems put beyond the reach of federal bureaucrats have personal information on employees, including addresses, pay grades and Social Security numbers, the sources told Reuters.
— Poetic Marvel🥃 (@PoeticMarvel) February 1, 2025
Will the DOGE help bring about government reform?
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“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one unnamed official said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
The officials said they can log on, but are unable to access the database.
Reuters said that a group including “current and former employees of Musk” has been the de facto source of authority in the Office of Personnel Management since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
The inmates are no longer running the asylum.
— Sarcaticus (@Sarcaticus) February 1, 2025
Charles Ezell, the acting head of the office, has been urging federal workers to quit and take eight months of severance pay. Trump appointed Ezell on Jan. 20.
Amanda Scales, a former Musk employee, is OPM’s chief of staff.
Riccardo Biasini, a former engineer at Tesla and a director at The Boring Company, Musk’s tunnel-building firm, is a senior adviser as the office undergoes its transformation.
Brian Bjelde, the SpaceX vice president of human resources, is also an adviser.
The employees tattling to Reuters said that the new leadership of the office has moved sofa beds into the office, so that work can be done day and night.
“It feels like a hostile takeover,” the employee said.
A report on Twitchy interpreted the Reuters report to mean “DOGE walked into the empty office and changed all of their computer passwords, locking them out of the system.”
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