DOGE software approval alarms Labor Department employees

Yahoo

14-02-2025

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has received approval from the Labor Department to use software that could allow it to transfer vast amounts of data out of Labor's systems, according to records seen by NBC News and interviews with two employees.
The approval for Musk's team to use the file-transfer and remote access software, known as PuTTY, has alarmed some of the Labor Department's career employees. Musk, the head of DOGE, has dispatched subordinates throughout the government to radically overhaul or dismantle federal agencies with the backing of President Donald Trump.
Many of the details around DOGE's actions have remained secret, though it has moved to gain access to large swaths of data held in the computer systems of individual agencies.
That access has become contentious, and a federal judge issued a restraining order Saturday temporarily forbidding DOGE's access to sensitive Treasury data, a case that does not involve the Labor Department. Democrats, labor unions and privacy advocates have filed lawsuits trying to halt data access at other government offices. Their concerns include the alleged use of artificial intelligence to analyze federal data and the alleged use of a computer server not familiar to government employees.
Transferring government data outside established protocols could have high stakes for anyone whose information is in those databases, because of the chance that more people would have access to their information than originally intended, increasing chances of a breach.
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.
'We don't know who they are, and we're giving them free rein to extract whatever they want,' one employee said. 'This is completely opposite of what we'd do to protect privacy.'
When reached for comment, a White House spokesperson did not directly answer questions about the software access but said that those working with Musk were doing so in full compliance with federal law, with appropriate security clearances and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisers.
The Labor Department's press office did not respond to a request for comment.
PuTTY is an open-source application that has been freely available for decades. Some technologists, including in government agencies, use it routinely in their jobs as a tool not only to transfer files but also to access computers remotely.
But government departments tightly control who may install and use the app on office machines because there are strict rules and laws about the security of federal data, the two Labor Department employees said. In general, people who want to use PuTTY or other controlled software must seek permission from system administrators to ensure their use would comply with security rules, they said.
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 studio 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.
NBC News sent emails to DOGE email addresses and others with those names and did not receive responses. The White House declined to provide further information about the five people.
The Labor Department has more than 50 electronic systems that include a diverse array of personally identifiable information, according to the department's chief information officer. The systems hold data for offices such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks the health of the economy; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, which enforces workplace rules; and the Employment and Training Administration, which provides billions of dollars in grant money annually, including to community colleges and apprenticeship programs. It is unclear which, if any, Labor Department databases the DOGE employees sought access to.
Ramada, one of the DOGE employees, wrote in his court declaration last week that he and his colleagues would comply with all data security and privacy rules. He submitted the declaration in opposition to a proposed temporary restraining order, and he said he was one of three DOGE employees detailed to the Labor Department.
'USDS employees detailed to the Department of Labor are required to be familiar with the legal rules governing access to Department of Labor data systems and are required to comply with those rules,' he wrote. (USDS stands for United States DOGE Service.)
He also pledged to follow rules related to sharing data.
'To the extent USDS-Department of Labor detailees wish to share information garnered during their work duties within the Executive Branch, they are required to comply with all applicable laws and regulations,' he wrote.
He did not say in the declaration why DOGE would need to share data elsewhere within the executive branch. He said DOGE's overall goal was 'to inform policy decisions.'
Musk has said that DOGE needs access to federal data in order to search for waste, fraud and abuse. He has also said that his office doesn't have any personal data of Americans — an assertion that has been met by skepticism among government workers and Democrats in Congress.
The Washington Post reported last week that DOGE had fed sensitive data from the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to examine the agency's programs and spending, and citing two people familiar with the project, Wired magazine reported that DOGE was developing an AI chatbot about spending across the government. NBC News has not confirmed that reporting.
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. Neither SpaceX nor Tesla responded to a request for comment on the potential for a conflict of interests. SpaceX has defended its safety record by pointing to training that it calls extensive, according to a 2023 investigation by Reuters into injuries at the company. Tesla has said its goal 'is to become the world's safest company by continuously integrating safety into the way we work.'
DOGE employees turned their attention to the Labor Department last week, after previously causing upheaval at several federal offices, including the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Simon Tatham, a British coder who created PuTTY, said he wasn't surprised to hear that DOGE employees might be using his software. The app is available to anyone under a creative-commons license, and it's one of many apps that could be used to transfer data. He said it's up to U.S. authorities to enforce data security laws if anyone violates them.
Whether DOGE's access to certain federal databases should be prohibited is now before U.S. District Judge John Bates, who's hearing the lawsuit filed last week in Washington, D.C., by several labor unions. On Friday, Bates ruled against a request by the plaintiffs for a temporary restraining order, finding that they did not have legal standing to sue.
Bates wrote, though, that he 'harbors concerns about defendants' alleged conduct.' He ordered additional briefing in the case, and the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Tuesday naming other defendants, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The plaintiffs say that the Labor Department's systems contain personally identifiable information about employees and others, as well as classified information.
'These employees face irreparable harm to their privacy interests if this information is improperly accessed or disseminated (such as by being downloaded to a private server). Once the information is improperly accessed and/or disseminated, recovery may be difficult, and information may already have been used for impermissible purposes,' the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit doesn't mention specific software programs, but it asks the court to direct the government 'to remove any software installed by DOGE personnel on agency systems.'
Justice Department lawyers wrote in response to the lawsuit that any allegations about transferring data were speculative.
'Whether or not a particular effort to share specific types of information is lawful will depend upon the statutes and regulations that govern the use of those systems,' the lawyers wrote. 'There is no basis for concluding, at this juncture, that any violation of the Privacy Act is forthcoming.'
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com