29-04-2025
DOGE Goons Access Classified Network Holding Nuclear Secrets
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has infiltrated two confidential computer networks used to transmit nuclear weapons secrets and other sensitive information, NPR reported.
Engineering wunderkind Luke Farritor, 23, and Miami-based venture capitalist Adam Ramada—both of whom work for DOGE—have had accounts on the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Enterprise Secure Network (ESN) for at least two weeks, the public radio network reported Monday.
ESN is 'responsible for transmitting restricted data about America's nuclear weapons designs and the special nuclear materials used.' The NNSA uses the network to transmit technical information from nuclear laboratories to production facilities that store, maintain, and upgrade the country's nuclear arsenal. Such communication must be sent and received in secure rooms, however, which are not accessible to most users who have accounts on the network.
They also reportedly have had access to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network for at least two weeks, which the Department of Defense uses to communicate with the Department of Energy about nuclear weapons.
NPR reported it is 'unclear just how much access to classified data the two DOGE staffers have.' A source described the accounts as a 'toehold' that 'could lead to something bigger.'
Neither Farritor nor Ramada appears to have experience with nuclear weapons or the handling of classified information. The Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees the NNSA, told NPR in a statement that its reporting was 'false' and that the two Musk minions are no longer working for the administration.
'No DOGE personnel have accessed these NNSA systems,' a DOE spokesperson wrote in an email. 'The two DOGE individuals in question worked within the agency for several days and departed DOE in February.'
It is unclear what classified information, if any, Farritor and Ramada have accessed.
Farritor attended the University of Nebraska but dropped out after he rose to fame for using AI to partially decipher a portion of the Vesuvius scrolls that had stumped scientists for centuries. He then took a job working for Nat Friedman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who had previously worked as the CEO of GitHub and Xamarin.
The engineer now spends his days helping Musk's team slash government contracts, leases, and jobs in the name of government efficiency. Despite Musk's claims, DOGE has yet to show proof that it has uncovered 'widespread fraud and abuse.'
DOGE has nevertheless succeeded in making life difficult for scientists at the NNSA. It fired hundreds of workers at the nuclear agency in February; a federal judge later rescinded many of the dismissals. Ultimately, 50 people lost their jobs.
Even with the reversal, however, DOGE's damage has already been done.
The Bulwark reported in February that morale was 'through the floor' at NNSA, whose scientists have warned that DOGE's hostility may lead to a 'brain drain' at the agency.
'The skill set is so narrowly specific that there might be five guys in the entire U.S. who can do it,' an employee told The Bulwark. 'And you might have just fired one, two or three are retired, and the other is based somewhere else in the U.S. and doesn't want to move. So you're hosed.'
