New Social Security whistleblower alleges DOGE worker improperly accessed data and planned to share it

Social Security’s inspector general is probing a whistleblower complaint that a former employee of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency claimed he had access to two Social Security databases and planned to share them with a new employer, a report said Tuesday, the latest security accusation in the post-DOGE era. 

The allegation, reported by the Washington Post, follows accusations by a previous whistleblower that DOGE employees uploaded Social Security data into the cloud and compromised the Social Security numbers of every American. The Post cited a letter by the acting inspector general to top members of four congressional committees reviewed by the Post, and two people familiar with the process. 

The Post said the whistleblower issued the complaint anonymously because they feared retaliation. The paper said it reviewed the complaint and had spoken with the whistleblower. 

The SSA’s Office of the Inspector General is investigating the whistleblower complaint and informed Congress of the review, according to the report. The Government Accountability Office has been conducting its own audit of DOGE’s access to data, the report said. 

The Social Security Administration denied the allegations and accused the paper of trying to scare seniors with “fake news.” 

“The allegations by a singular anonymous source have been strongly refuted by all named parties — SSA, the former employee and the company,” a spokesperson for the agency said. 

According to the report, a former DOGE software engineer, who worked at Social Security last year before starting a job at a government contractor in October, allegedly told co-workers that he had two 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, according to the Post. 

“Allegations that a ‘DOGE bro’ may have removed highly sensitive Social Security data onto a thumb drive should set off alarm bells across the country,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “If these reports are accurate, it is a stunning, illegal data-security breach.” 

Last year, Chuck Borges, former chief data officer of the Social Security Administration, filed a complaint alleging the private data of every American who has a Social Security number — or who has ever applied for one — was at risk after employees of DOGE allegedly uploaded a copy of the Social Security Administration’s database to a cloud environment that lacked oversight.  

The SSA initially said in September that an internal review found that its database containing the sensitive personal information of all Americans remained secure and was not hacked, leaked or compromised. 

However, in a reversal, the Trump administration admitted in a Jan. 16 court filing that DOGE shared Social Security data on an unauthorized private service, Cloudflare NET +3.56%. That filing also detailed that DOGE employees tried to hand over sensitive personal records to an unnamed advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results” and sent confidential information on about 1,000 Americans to Elon Musk’s workers. 

“These continued revelations demand a full investigation with accountability if wrongdoing is confirmed. This is criminal, and the result of a year of lawlessness and mismanaging the people’s data,” Rep. John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, and Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a joint statement. 

The SSA pays about $1.5 trillion in benefits to more than 70.6 million people, including retirees, people with disabilities and children. The agency, however, has data on even more people, including everyone who has a Social Security number, as well as everyone who has Medicare, and every low-income American who has applied for Social Security’s companion program Supplemental Security Income. 

Under the second Trump administration, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was created to root out alleged waste, fraud and abuse. DOGE was led for less than six months by Musk, the deep-pocketed Republican campaign donor and chief executive of Tesla TSLA +2.80%and  SpaceX.  

Over Musk’s tenure, the SSA cut 7,000 jobs, or about 12% of its staff, closed some regional offices, made leadership changes and modified its phone customer-service system. It also encouraged beneficiaries to use online services, even as some older adults and people with disabilities have access issues.