Members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) copied a live copy of the Social Security Administration's Numerical Identification System to an agency-run Amazon-hosted cloud server that lacked independent security controls. The database holds more than 450 million records with applicants' names, birthplaces, citizenship, family Social Security numbers, and other sensitive personal and financial information. Agency officials approved the June upload despite data officer Charles Borges raising concerns. The cloud reportedly lacked oversight mechanisms such as access and usage monitoring, enabling administrators to create publicly accessible services and risking widespread exposure of personally identifiable data.
Borges said members of DOGE, the team of former Elon Musk employees appointed to government under the guise of reducing fraud and waste, copied the sensitive database to an agency-run Amazon-hosted cloud server "apparently lacking in independent security controls," such as who was accessing the data and how they were using it. The lack of security protections violated internal agency security controls and federal privacy laws, the complaint alleges.
Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration's chief data officer, said in a newly released whistleblower complaint published Tuesday that other top agency officials signed off on a decision in June to upload "a live copy of the country's Social Security information in a cloud environment that circumvents oversight," despite Borges raising concerns.
The database, known as the Numerical Identification System, contains more than 450 million records containing all of the data submitted as part of a Social Security application, including the applicant's name, place of birth, citizenship, and the Social Security numbers of their family members, as well as other sensitive personal and financial information.
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