Sabotage or Data Security? Sources Tell Reuters That DOGE Locked Gov't Employees Out of HR Data Systems

The reasons for this are unclear, but it appears that on Friday, aides to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) point man Elon Musk apparently locked a significant number of federal government employees at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) out of their work computer networks, according to anonymous sources in an exclusive story from Reuters:

Musk, the billionaire Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."

As of this writing, neither Musk nor anyone from the Trump administration has made any statement about this action or why it was taken. In corporate downsizing, it's not an uncommon step to restrict employees' access to data before informing them they are about to be sent to the wonderful world of unemployment, although there's no way of knowing if that's what is going on here. Add to that the fact that this is highly sensitive data, including personal and professional information, and security becomes a major concern.

Elon Musk, as well, has been empowered with finding ways to make the government more efficient. It's not unreasonable to presume that reducing the federal workforce might be one way to do that.

Elon Musk: POTUS Wants SpaceX to Bring Home Stranded Astronauts

It's unclear if this X post is related, but note Musk's comment at the bottom:

Hmm... https://t.co/B8lMexh01c pic.twitter.com/z0BR6PL5gY
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) January 31, 2025

Musk wrote:

Before even getting to timed scripts, the number of government jobs that could be replaced simply with a mouse macro is astounding!

That's an interesting notion. The OPM, on the day Pres. Trump was inaugurated, came under the control of a cadre of former Musk employees, the Reuters piece (linked above) continued:

A team including current and former employees of Musk assumed command of OPM on Jan. 20, the day Trump took office. They have moved sofa beds onto the fifth floor of the agency's headquarters, which contains the director's office and can only be accessed with a security badge or a security escort, one of the OPM employees said.
The sofa beds have been installed so the team can work around the clock, the employee said.

If you're going to reduce the government workforce, OPM would seem to be where you would start - and some federal workers nearing retirement are already getting buyout proposals. This act has the hallmarks of a corporation downsizing, in fact, but then, cutting the fat out of the federal Colossus is one of the things Donald Trump ran on.

This is a developing story. We will bring you updates as events warrant. Better find something to hang onto, because it sure looks like the Trump administration and the man himself aren't planning to slow the pace anytime soon.

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