The Office of Personnel Management’s acting inspector general has confirmed that the independent office is investigating whether any “emerging threats” to sensitive information have arisen as a result of Elon Musk’s DOGE operatives introducing rapid changes to protected government networks.
“The OPM OIG [office of the inspector general] is committed to providing independent and objective oversight of OPM’s programs and operations,” writes the acting inspector general, Norbert Vint, in a letter dated March 7 to Democratic lawmakers, adding that his office is not only legally required to scrutinize OPM’s security protocols, but routinely does so based on “developing risks.” The letter stated that the office would fold specific requests issued by Democratic lawmakers last month into its “existing work,” while also initiating a “new engagement” over potential risks at the agency associated with computer systems that have been accessed or modified by the United States DOGE Service.
Vint, whose predecessor was fired by Trump in January, is one of a half dozen deputy inspectors general urged by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last month to investigate reports from WIRED and other outlets about DOGE’s efforts to gain access to a wide range of record systems that host some of the government’s most sensitive data, including personnel files on millions of government employees and their families.
“We are deeply concerned that unauthorized system access could be occurring across the federal government and could pose a major threat to the personal privacy of all Americans and to the national security of our nation,” Gerald Connolly, the oversight committee’s ranking Democrat, wrote in a letter on February 6.
In addition to OPM, Democrats have pressed for similar security assessments at five other agencies, including at the Treasury Department, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, the US Agency for International Development, and the Department of Education. However, Vint is the only watchdog at any of the named agencies to have responded so far, a committee spokesperson tells WIRED.
While in the minority in the House and Senate, Democrats have little power to conduct effective oversight outside of formal hearings, which must be convened by Republicans. During his first term, Trump’s Justice Department issued guidance notifying executive agencies that they had zero obligation to respond to questions from Democrats.
Congressional Republicans have committed to little, if any, formal oversight of DOGE’s work, opting instead to back-channel with the billionaire over the impacts of his anti-personnel crusade.
The executive order establishing DOGE, signed by the president on his first day in office, instructed federal agencies to provide Musk’s operatives with “full and prompt access” to all unclassified records systems in order to effectuate a government-wide purge of “fraud, waste, and abuse.” It quickly became clear, however, that DOGE’s staff, many of them young engineers with direct ties to Musk’s own businesses, were paying little attention to key privacy safeguards; eschewing, for instance, mandatory assessments of new technologies installed on protected government networks.
“Several of the concerns you expressed in your letter touch on issues that the OPM OIG evaluates as part of our annual reviews of OPM’s IT and financial systems, and we plan to incorporate those concerns into these existing projects,” writes Vint in the March 7 letter. “We have also just begun an engagement to assess risks associated with new and modified information systems at OPM. We believe that, ultimately, our new engagement will broadly address many of your questions related to the integrity of OPM systems.”