Ex-DOGE worker may have taken sensitive info on millions to new job: whistleblower

The inspector general for the Social Security Administration is investigating after a whistleblower alleged an official installed by tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative took a flash drive full of sensitive beneficiary information to his new employer.

According to The Washington Post, this allegation, if proven, "would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at an agency that serves more than 70 million Americans."

The complaint alleges "the former DOGE software engineer, who worked at the Social Security Administration last year before starting a job at a government contractor in October, allegedly told several co-workers that he possessed two tightly restricted databases of U.S. citizens’ information, and had at least one on a thumb drive. The databases, called 'Numident' and the 'Master Death File,' include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names."

"The complaint does not include specific dates of when he is said to have told colleagues this information, but at least one of the alleged events unfolded around early January, according to the complaint," the report continued. "While working at DOGE, the engineer had approved access to Social Security data." The whistleblower says this DOGE employee told him he was transferring the database info “to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it at [the company.]”

The Post did not disclose the name of the employee or their subsequent employer, as the allegations were not verified; however, an attorney for the employee denied any wrongdoing.

DOGE, which was established to look for ways to cut government waste, caused a series of crises at the Social Security Administration last year, including a massive backlog of cases spurred by a reduction in staff.