Friday, January 31, 2025.
That’s the day I read a Reuters article that said Elon Musk had locked Office of Personnel Management (OPM) staff out of computer systems containing the data of federal employees. I heard the same day he was seeking access to Treasury Department payments systems (the U.S. government’s bank account) and he got it that weekend.
That night, while trying to fall asleep, I had the sinking feeling that this narcissistic, unelected billionaire who had destroyed Twitter was going to do the same with the federal government’s computer systems. This was just the beginning and he was going to get around to Social Security eventually. I got out of bed and logged into my Social Security account to download my current earnings statement, so I’d have a record of what was on file before Musk deleted, sold, or otherwise tampered with my data.
I advised my family, friends, and LinkedIn followers to do the same.
Since then, Musk and his employees (teens and twenty-somethings with no security clearance and no government experience) have been given free rein over multiple government computer systems and have been shutting down programs and firing civil servants at will, with Donald Trump’s blessing.
In cybersecurity circles, there is a huge risk in giving one person access to every computer system within an organization. Compartmentalizing data is one method of keeping that data safe. The term for this is “separation of duties,” which is actually appropriate to this situation in another way.
Because Congress has the power of the purse, what Musk and his underlings are doing is unconstitutional, thus, illegal. It is the definition of a coup d’état: “a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; esp : the violent overthrow or alteration of a existing government by a small group.” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, 2003)
The executive branch of the U.S. government is supposed to be checked and balanced by the other two branches, the legislative and judicial branches, through a separation of duties. With Elon Musk’s help, Donald Trump has declared himself “King” and is working to abolish the other branches of government, eliminating the separation of duties that works to protect democracy. Republicans in Congress are happy and willing to cede their power to him (or are so cowed that they are doing so unwillingly).
In the three weeks since Musk was given access to OPM and Treasury Department computer systems, he has been granted access to many more systems, including the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Social Security Administration. (See?!? I knew he was coming for Social Security!)
Wikipedia is keeping a running list of the departments Musk is targeting through his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency – not an official government department). It’s a long list and growing longer by the day. Soon, there won’t be a single part of our government computer systems outside his control.
That’s a system We, the People, paid for, and we expect our data (Social Security numbers, tax returns, addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, military service, student loans, and etc.) to remain private and secure, not in the hands of an unelected billionaire (I can’t stress this point enough) who has conflicts of interest up the wazoo with his government contracts.
Because we can’t trust Musk or his underlings with our data, each of us needs to log into our .gov accounts immediately and download our current data. Print it out or save it to an external hard drive that you disconnect from your computer.
Grab a copy of your Social Security earnings statement, military service and veterans benefits, student loan data, tax info, and etc. If you have relatives and friends who aren’t tech savvy, help them download their data. If you own a company or nonprofit organization that has contracts or grants with the federal government, you should download this data, too.
Check back periodically to see if any of your information has changed in an unexpected way.
And, contact your legislators. Tell them to do everything in their power to remove Musk’s and his underlings’ access to all of the government’s computer systems.
Eventually, We, the People, will sweep Musk and Trump out of power and the account information you save now will help reconstruct our government computer systems, only with better protections against power-hungry, political marauders.
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I wrote a nasty comment to trump the other day on his whitehouse site. I tried to contact Rep. emmer the other day too but he doesn’t even reply with an email at all. I am so disgusted with this bunch running our country right now. Oh, and I haven’t been able to get into my medicare account for a few years because they made some changes a couple years back that left me without access to it now. 🙁
How frustrating on so many fronts, Joan! I’ve left messages with my Senators and Representative. Representative Craig co-sponsored the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to require anyone accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems to have lawful authorization (Musk and his underlings don’t even have security clearances) and be free from conflicts of interest. I tried to call to thank her and found her mailbox full. I’m glad to see pushback from Democrats, though there needs to be even more, and the Republicans should be hearing the full extent of our rage at Musk and Trump’s unconstitutional and illegal acts.