DOGE uploaded live copy of Social Security database to ‘vulnerable’ cloud server, says whistleblower

Summary

A top Social Security Administration official turned whistleblower says members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uploaded hundreds of millions of Social Security records to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of most Americans at risk of compromise. Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, said in a newly released whistleblower complaint published Tuesday that other top agency officials signed off on a decision in June to upload “a live copy of the country’s Social Security information in a cloud environment that circumvents oversight,” despite Borges raising concerns. The database, known as the Numerical Identification System, contains more than 450 million records containing all of the data submitted as part of a Social Security application, including the applicant’s name, place of birth, citizenship, and the Social Security numbers of their family members, as well as other sensitive personal and financial information. Borges said members of DOGE, the team of former Elon Musk employees appointed to government under the guise of reducing fraud and waste, copied the sensitive database to an agency-run Amazon-hosted cloud server “apparently lacking in independent security controls,” such as who was accessing the data and how they were using it. The lack of security protections violated internal agency security controls and federal privacy laws, the complaint alleges. Borges said by allowing DOGE to be administrators of the agency’s cloud, the DOGE operatives would be able to create “publicly accessible services,” meaning that they could allow public access to the cloud system and any of the sensitive data stored inside. Borges warned in the complaint that if this information were compromised, “it is possible that the sensitive [personally identifiable information] on every American including health diagnoses, income levels and banking information, family relationships, and...