DOGE Worker Got Treasury Payment Data Without Security Checks

A member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency received access to Treasury Department payment data without undertaking the proper security protocols, according to a new watchdog report.

The Bureau of Fiscal Service didn’t fully follow its information technology security rules when granting a DOGE employee access to three payment systems, according to a Tuesday Government Accountability Office report. The bureau manages the finances of the federal government and distributes payments to Americans, including for income tax refunds and benefits.

DOGE led the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government and modernize the agencies, resulting in thousands of worker departures and months of chaos. Former government officials and Democrats have criticized DOGE’s seemingly broad access to government data, citing concerns of taxpayer privacy breaches.

The DOGE employee could view, copy, and print data from the three BFS payment systems between January and February 2025, according to GAO. The employee also was mistakenly given temporary access to change and delete data for one of the systems, but GAO found no evidence that data was changed.

The DOGE employee failed to encrypt payment information sent to another agency’s DOGE team or obtain approval to share the information, according to the report. The employee also didn’t always follow IT security rules because BFS didn’t implement all the controls needed to ensure compliance with those rules.