After the Labor Department approved DOGE to use PuTTY last week, the two department employees said that access was put on hold, at least temporarily, because of a lawsuit filed by several federal labor unions. NBC News was not able to determine whether Musk’s subordinates at DOGE had already used the software or transferred any data, but the possibility was enough to spark concern within the Labor Department about the security of sensitive information, the two employees said.
The two employees said that they considered the authorization to be a red flag because the DOGE members were new arrivals who, in their view, lacked sufficient vetting and experience for the access they were getting.
The two Labor Department employees said that five DOGE workers were approved to use two pieces of software: PuTTY, commonly used for large file transfers, and an SQL [S]tudio program, used for editing and exploring certain databases.
According to records seen by NBC News, the five people were: Sam Beyda, Derek Geissler, Cole Killian, Adam Ramada and Jordan Wick. Ramada identified himself as a DOGE employee in a sworn declaration in federal court last week, and Killian has been identified as a DOGE employee by news organizations, including NBC News. Wired magazine reported Saturday that Wick is affiliated with DOGE. The names of Beyda and Geissler have not been previously reported as working for either DOGE or the Trump administration.
The Labor Department’s databases likely include information about Musk’s own companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, both of which have been subjects of publicly reported OSHA inspections, as well as about companies that compete with Musk’s.
Add new comment