Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration's chief data officer, filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel and Congress alleging that Department of Government Efficiency officials uploaded the SSA Numident file to a vulnerable cloud server. The Numident file contains every Social Security number ever issued, and the complaint warns that unauthorized access could enable widespread identity theft, loss of health care and food benefits, and force the government to reissue Social Security numbers at great expense. A federal judge temporarily halted DOGE's access, but the Supreme Court later allowed the transfer to proceed. Internal memos indicate senior officials, including CIO Aram Moghaddassi, dismissed security warnings and accepted the risks. Borges alleges potential violations of multiple federal statutes.
A whistleblower accused officials tied to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of putting the personal details of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk by uploading the Social Security Administration's (SSA) most sensitive database into a vulnerable cloud server. Charles Borges, the SSA's chief data officer, made the allegation in a complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel and Congress in which he warned that DOGE's handling of the so-called Numident file, which contains every Social Security number ever issued, exposed the data to enormous vulnerabilities.
The revelations sharpen scrutiny of DOGE, the Elon Musk-created team embedded in the federal bureaucracy and tasked with implementing cuts for President Donald Trump, which has already faced lawsuits and judicial blockades over its handling of government-held data. A federal judge halted DOGE's access to Social Security information in March, but the Supreme Court cleared the way weeks later, paving the path for the transfer Borges described.
Internal memos cited in the complaint and seen by The New York Times show senior officials, including Aram Moghaddassi, a former Musk executive now serving as Social Security's chief information officer, brushing aside security warnings. I have determined the business need is higher than the security risk associated with this implementation and I accept all risks, Moghaddassi wrote in July.
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