- Musk aides restrict access to federal employee data systems
- Musk’s team works around the clock, installs sofa beds at OPM
- Concerns include cybersecurity and lack of oversight
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
Musk, the billionaire Tesla
CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems.
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce.
Musk, OPM, representatives of the new team, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OPM has sent out memos that eschew the normal dry wording of government missives as it encourages civil se
10 Comments
cocacola1
> The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
> "We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."
This seems beyond bad.
archagon
I'm sure this will be flagged soon enough, but people need to know that there is an unprecedented, hostile, and (seemingly) illegal blitzkrieg happening against the federal civil service. Doors are being barricaded. Strange servers are being installed by unknown individuals. People with decades of institutional experience are getting pushed out the door.
First-hand accounts can be found here: https://old.reddit.com/r/fednews/
DiogenesKynikos
Running the Federal government like a Silicon Valley startup – what could possibly go wrong?
cdme
Musk should have nothing to do with governing. Period.
tbatchelli
If anyone is wondering what it is to live through a coup d'état, this is it. This is phase 1 of many phases.
lz127HqgR
It might be to prevent them from altering job and task descriptions in order to escape DEI purges.
Let's hope they don't use a regex or an "AI" to decide whom to purge, but I would not be surprised.
bananapub
this is…despite happening concurrently with a "democratic transition", a coup, which is going entirely unopposed by the legislature.
this is … beyond bad.
jdgoesmarching
Why is this flagged? This seems like a pretty damn important tech story.
archagon
We are literally following Curtis Yarvin's playbook for toppling democracy right now: https://archive.is/iAtnM
tmpz22
This happened on Friday for a reason