A whistleblower has accused the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of putting hundreds of millions of Americans’ personal data at risk. The data, including names, Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates, could be used for widespread identity theft if compromised.
Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, said DOGE members assigned to his agency uploaded a copy of the sensitive data to a vulnerable cloud server in June. Borges made the allegation Tuesday in a complaint he sent to the Office of Special Counsel and congressional lawmakers.
“This vulnerable cloud environment,” the complaint said, “contains all data submitted in an application for a United States Social Security card, including the name of the applicant, place and date of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, parents’ names and social security numbers, phone number, address and other personal information.”
The cloud server, the complaint added, was only accessible to DOGE and did not include “independent security monitoring” that is normally required at the Social Security Administration for sensitive data storage.
DOGE, which was originally overseen by billionaire Elon Musk, sought to combat fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government on behalf of President Donald Trump. Musk said early on that DOGE needed access to Social Security data because of overwhelming fraud. Experts have refuted such claims.
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