Security News This Week: DOGE May Have Misused Social Security Data, DOJ Admits

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Security News This Week: DOGE May Have Misused Social Security Data, DOJ Admits
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"DOGE operatives “were using links to share data through the third-party server ‘Cloudflare.'"
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The Trump administration this week admitted in court documents that operatives with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may have shared data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) with an outside group that seeks to “overturn election results in certain states,” according to a January 16 Department of Justice court filing. However, it is not clear to the DOJ whether the unnamed “DOGE Team members” actually shared the data with the group, which was unidentified in the court records.

The filing, which seeks to “correct” previous testimony, also says DOGE operatives “were using links to share data through the third-party server ‘Cloudflare,’” which is “not approved for storing SSA data and when used in this manner is outside SSA’s security protocols.” The filing further says that Steve Davis, a high-ranking adviser to Elon Musk, was copied on a March 3, 2025, email that included an attached password-protected file containing the names and addresses of around 1,000 people, which was taken from SSA systems of record. The SSA was not able to determine, however, whether Davis accessed the file, which remained inaccessible to current SSA workers as of the date of the court filing.

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