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A aged U.S. lawgiver says representatives of Elon Musk were granted “ full access ” to a U.S. Treasury payment system used to break up trillions of dollars to Americans each class and warned that Musk ’s entree to the system poses a “ interior security jeopardy . ”
Ron Wyden , a popular senator from Oregon and ranking penis of the Senate Finance Committee , say ina post on Bluesky on Saturdaythat sources told his office that Treasury secretary Scott Bessent grant Musk ’s squad , known as the Department of Government Efficiency , or DOGE , authorization to get at the highly sensible Treasury system on Friday . The authorization derive following a tie earlier in the week , in which the Treasury ’s highest - ranking career officialleft the departmentfollowing asking from Musk ’s team for access to the system .
“ Social Security and Medicare benefits , grants , payments to government declarer , including those that vie instantly with Musk ’s own company . All of it , ” pen Wyden in the Wiley Post , name to DOGE ’s access .
The New York Timesalso reportedthat Bessent granted DOGE access to the Treasury ’s requital system on Friday . One of the DOGE representatives grant access is said to be Tom Krause , the principal executive ofCloud Software Group , which owns Citrix and several other company . Krause did not come back TechCrunch ’s request for scuttlebutt . A interpreter for the Treasury did not comment when e-mail Saturday .
The system head for the hills by the Treasury ’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service command the spending of around $ 6 trillion in federal funds to American households , admit Social Security and Medicare benefits , tax refunds , and payment to U.S. federal employees and contractors , fit in toa varsity letter written by Wydenand sent to Bessent a Clarence Day sooner . Access to the payments system was historically specify to a few staff because it contains personal information about billion of Americans who invite payments from the federal government , per the Times .
According to Wyden ’s letter , the payment system “ merely can not give out , and any politically - motivate tampering in them risks stark harm to our state and the economy . ”
In his alphabetic character , Wyden said he was worry thatMusk ’s extensive business organization mathematical operation in China“endangers U.S. cybersecurity ” and create conflict of interest that “ make his access to these systems a internal security risk . ”
Last year , the Biden organisation blamed China for a series of intrusionstargeting U.S. critical infrastructure , the theft of senior American official ’ phone records during breach of several U.S. phone and internet giant , and abreach of the Treasury ’s own organisation late last year . Wyden , also a long - attend member of the Senate Intelligence Committee , articulate it was “ unusual to be granting access to tender system to an individual with such significant business stake in China . ”
Several other federal section are under scrutiny by DOGE , including the federal government ’s own human resource department , known as the Office of Personnel Management .
Reutersreported on Fridaythat Musk ’s representatives locked out career civic servants from computer systems , which contain the personal data and human resources files of millions of Union employees . The OPM was hack in 2015 , which the U.S. government later attributed to China , lead in the theft of personnel record on more than 22 million U.S. politics employees , including staff with security clearances .
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