The DOGE employee stole Social Security data and placed it on a thumb drive, the report says

A former employee of Elon Musk Government Efficiency Department Americans’ personal data was allegedly stolen from the U.S. Social Security Administration and stored on a thumb drive, according to a whistleblower complaint. The Washington Post reported.

The former DOGE software engineer told co-workers at his new job that he “owned two highly restricted databases of American citizen information” and was planning to use the information at his new company, according to the report, which added that the Social Security Administration’s inspector general is investigating the whistleblower complaint.

The former DOGE employee, who was not named by The Washington Post, worked at the Social Security Administration last year. In October, he left to work for a government contractor, where he told colleagues he had acquired two databases, called “Numident” and “Master Death File,” according to The Post, which reported that the databases could include records “for more than 500 million living and deceased Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names.”

The man also reportedly claimed that he previously had unrestricted “God-level” access to SSA systems.

A spokesman for the Social Security Administration, which remains under DOGE’s control, denied that a former employee had stolen data on American citizens. The Washington Post “craves clicks and is eager to spread fake news to scare seniors,” the spokesman said. Office of Inspector General; It is independent of the Trump administration and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the latest case of a suspected breach of Americans’ personal data linked to DOGE and its incursion into the Social Security Administration. In January, two DOGE members They are suspected of accessing and sharing Social Security numbers Which was blocked to them as part of an effort to help an advocacy group aiming to “overturn election results in certain states,” according to the lawsuit.

Another whistleblower within the agency said last year that DOGE members were putting Americans at risk through them Download hundreds of millions of Social Security records To a weak cloud server. Also last year, Judge blocked DOGE of access to SSA systems, accusing the Musk-led agency of being “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition” in search of fraud.

Many DOGE members They were confirmed to the Social Security Administration after Trump took office last year. According to The Washington Post, at least a dozen DOGE employees, mostly technical or engineering staff, worked at the agency, although the rest of the employees were not informed of their actual roles and activities.