Elon Musk's team barred from Treasury access amid data row
The Washington Post reports that a court in Washington restricted Elon Musk's team's access to the U.S. Treasury's payment system after a complaint about a data protection violation.
The court decided to restrict Elon Musk's team, DOGE, access to the U.S. Treasury's payment system. This decision responds to a complaint regarding a potential violation of personal data protection regulations. According to the Washington Post, Musk's team accessed sensitive data concerning millions of officials.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that DOGE employees cannot access the central payment system, which handles pensions and other benefits. Access has been suspended during the review of a complaint from a pensioners' group. According to CNN, Musk and his team accessed the system to halt foreign aid payments.
Concerns about security
Members of the DOGE team, including young employees, gained access to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) database, which contains sensitive information about millions of federal employees. OPM staff are concerned about potential abuse and hacking attacks and worry about Musk's team's permissions and security credentials.
Musk's actions have raised concerns among people close to Donald Trump, although Trump praised Musk, claiming he acted with his consent. The project offering federal employees voluntary layoffs in exchange for eight-month salaries has also been temporarily suspended. Around 40,000 employees took the offer, constituting about 2 percent of federal officials.
