Summary

Elon Musk allegedly installed an unauthorized server at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), gaining access to sensitive federal employee data, including Social Security numbers, home addresses, and medical histories.

Young, inexperienced staffers are reportedly using this access to target positions for removal, particularly DEI offices.

Security concerns have been raised, with fears of hacking and HIPAA violations.

Senior officials have been locked out of key systems, limiting oversight of DOGE’s actions, which could significantly impact the federal workforce.

  • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    Musk’s crew at DOGE—Trump’s weird fake agency—built a secret server to swipe every federal worker’s private deets. Skipped the law? Obviously. No privacy checks, no rules—just a free pass to dig through Social Security numbers, health records, and your cousin’s lame USAJOBS résumé.

    The “talent” running this circus? Some college kid and a teen who probably still texts “XD” unironically. Peak competence. They’re blasting spam emails like it’s 2003, while China’s hackers lick their chops.

    Congress is suddenly shocked? Please. They let this dumpster fire burn until the lawsuits rolled in. Musk calls it “streamlining.” I call it digital kleptocracy with a side of Space Karen vibes.

    If this is “innovation,” humanity’s screwed. Imagine a Bond villain—but instead of lasers, he’s got Excel sheets and your mom’s dental records.

    Stay frosty. The future’s here, and it’s run by rich twits playing Sims: Government Edition.

  • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 hours ago

    It’s been wild reading news stories coming out the US over the last couple of weeks.

    Not the stories themselves of course, but the air of shock and alarm in both the stories and in the comment sections - and its not just Lemmy, its everywhere there’s a comment section - when you knew what he was going to do, he told you what he was going to do - why are you now in any way surprised or disturbed?

    The main question I have is that I’ve been hearing from Americans for decades now how gun ownership means you have a 2nd amendment based militia ready to go to protect the constitution and yet in the face of what is completely obviously the initial stages of a coup, I see no signs of that militia. Where are you?

    • MrNobody@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 hours ago

      I see no signs of that militia. Where are you? I don’t even see signs of mass protest. Just idle chat online. Theres alarm, but its all complacent, Land of the free, to sit around and watch their country burn. Yet they still make fun of the french for WWII.

      At least the french know how to fucking riot.

    • TangoNoir@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      You put the equivalent of mobsters in the White House and suddenly these checks don’t matter. As a country we fucked around and found out.

      Seriously I tried warning people but they were certain that our existing laws would hold up. It’s heartbreaking.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      when you knew what he was going to do, he told you what he was going to do - why are you now in any way surprised or disturbed?

      My guess is that people’s reaction is more like: “I thought politicians lie? Why would they do this?”

      I know Musk is not technically a politician, but the same confused reaction and bewilderment that you mentioned is applied to Trump’s current actions as well.

    • TangoNoir@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      There are a lot of reasons for this. Many of us did see it coming. However, we have all still been culturally brainwashed to think that our government has too many checks for things to get this far out of hand.

      • TangoNoir@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        So it’s like your average American doesn’t believe this is even a possibility regardless as to what they have said.

    • telllos@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Because gun are for poor people to kill themselves, and Kamala was in favour of Israel so we let Trump get elected

    • theherk@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Knowledge of that which is forthcoming, doesn’t prevent it from being disturbing when it arrives.

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Not anymore! With constitution 2.0 only bad moms who forget to pick up their kids from the baseball game on time will ever be prosecuted for capital offences and sentenced to capital punishment… Not rich guys!

  • WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Soooooo… that’s a direct threat to national security. And as I understand, trump is quoted as saying that his dog Elon doesn’t do anything without consent, so….

    Impeachment and prison?

  • Valorie12@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    After this, is there any question that he didn’t do something to hack vote counting machines? I’m feeling like this election wasn’t legitimate.

      • StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Fantastic long read. ty.

        But if you’re expecting a sexy story about Elon Musk messing with vote-counting software from outer space, sorry, you won’t get that here.

        As in Bush v. Gore in 2000, and in too many other miscarriages of Democracy, this election was determined by good old “vote suppression,” the polite term we use for shafting people of color out of their ballot. We used to call it Jim Crow.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Yes, he didn’t. They want to make everyone question the legitimacy of the elections, so they’re pretending that they orchestrated something. In reality, there was nothing suspicious about the election. The only ratfucking was the normal, Gerrymandering kind. And a metric fuck ton of misinformation.

    • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      In a two party, first past the post voting country no election is legitimate

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Elon Musk is currently taking over the U.S. and you still want to argue about elections as if they will even ever happen again outside of what Putin does.

            You don’t have to be sick of being disenfranchised by Democrats anymore because they’re now the puppet opposition.

          • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            This public masturbation thing you’re doing is really weird. “I voted for the fascists because the Democrats were heading towards fascism” is just weird. I mean at least the maga are honest about it, they wanted Nazis, they voted for Nazis, and they’re happy as peaches to get Nazis. But not you. No, the Democrats forced you to choose Nazis and so the Nazis are their fault?
            I don’t get what you are doing, but at this point it’s moved past trolling to just feeling weird and gross.

            • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              10 hours ago

              I voted for the fascists because the Democrats were heading towards fascism

              no one said that. it’s a strawman

              • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                Oh, I’m sorry. I interrupted before you got that far into your wank? I can see why it would leave you feeling frustrated.

          • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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            11 hours ago

            Not that I haven’t said much the same, but you’re about to find out what disenfranchisement really feels like while whining about what voting system you should have had.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Do you have to be a citizen to commit treason? Did he actually obtain citizenship after committing his visa fraud? I’d like to see the long form certificate of his citizenship. Last time they complained someone was born in Africa it was a big deal…

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        12 hours ago

        He is a US citizen. He can be charged, convicted, and hanged for treason. And there isn’t even any case law about whether a non-citizen can be charged with treason.

      • JasonDJ
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        13 hours ago

        Treason holds a special place in my heart.

        There’s the slight problem of “it’s only treason if you fail”, though. It’s a corollary of “history is written by the winners”.

        • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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          11 hours ago

          Not really. Sometimes even the Victor’s of wars and battles executed the traitors to the other side that helped them. Very much a case of love the treason hate the traitor.

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        This is one of those things were pardons and laws don’t really matter. The way this thing is going, most of the citizens of DC will literally want to see Trump, Musk, and Vance’s heads on pikes. If things get bad enough, the military and those guarding the president may simply look the other way and let the mob storm the gates. Most of the instances you see of revolutionary crowds storming a dictator’s palace only occur because the military abandons them.

        Trump and Musk are at a very real risk of ending up like Mussolini, hanging from a lamppost. That’s how Fascist leaders like him often end up.

        • Kitathalla@lemy.lol
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          7 hours ago

          most of the citizens of DC will literally want to see Trump, Musk, and Vance’s heads on pikes

          If things get bad enough, the military and those guarding the president may simply look the other way and let the mob storm the gates

          I wish I could live in your fantasy world, mate, but it’s never going to happen. The ideological divide has mutated beautifully into full-on trench warfare between camps of cheerleaders/fans. There are more than enough of the ‘other’ in positions that matter to make the machine’s gears keep turning.

          • ynthrepic@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            I’d prefer things end without violence… Which puts me in the most impossible timeline there is. It’s so frustrating realizing they’re all literally stupid or manipulated by stupid. Stupid being the promise of wealth, power, and fame ironically at all costs.

  • samus12345@lemm.ee
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    15 hours ago

    There really was no plan at all about preventing fascists from just marching in and doing whatever they want, huh? We were just supposed to count on people to do the right thing? Surprised this didn’t happen sooner, honestly.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        The Judicial system is being gish galloped. Let’s see if Congress gives a shit especially as Elon has usurped the Power of the Purse.

        • killingspark@feddit.org
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          6 hours ago

          I guess the idea was always that the public would need to stop the gish gallop until the judicial system has caught up to restore the balance. In the hopes that there would still be an executive power functional enough to enforce the ruling.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      12 hours ago

      All the laws that were put in place after Nixon didn’t really lay out a punishment. They assumed impeachment would still be the remedy used. Not sure what changed between the 70s and now that made senators afraid to challenge their president.

    • MagicShel
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      15 hours ago

      No one is supposed to follow illegal orders. But, who is to say what’s illegal and isn’t? And who are you going to call when they force you? The people executing Trumps orders? Is it worth not going home to your family over, or should you just let the courts decide? And who is to adjudicate your guilt? And can you even afford to fight it? Not if you’re a non-corrupt civil servant.

      No, there is no plan for the country choosing evil.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        If they don’t follow their illegal orders they will still arrested them or fire them for insubordination. If something is done in the end those people will not get their jobs back or have their records cleared or be compensated in any way.

        Meanwhile the perps won’t get shit done to them.

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        It was built into the system, one way or another. The founders were morons. Even at its best, you have a few hundred people you have to corrupt to take over the entire country.

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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          15 hours ago

          The Iroquois Nation will retain its title for longest lasting known democracy on North American soil

          • MagicShel
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            14 hours ago

            Are they accepting refugees? Or did we wipe them out?

            This was supposed to be funny, but tbh I’m too ignorant to made a decent joke about it. Obviously they would just be under US jurisdiction if they still exist, and probably don’t have that kind of power, but fuck maybe it’s time for native Americans to kick the rest of us back to the sea because we obviously don’t deserve their land.

            • AugustWest@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              maybe it’s time for native Americans to kick the rest of us back to the sea because we obviously don’t deserve their land

              🌎👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

        • samus12345@lemm.ee
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          14 hours ago

          In their defense, there’s no way they could have imagined the modern world. The system worked okay for the world they lived in, but it became woefully inadequate over the next 200 years or so. They probably hoped that future generation were the ones that wouldn’t be morons.

          • dx1@lemmy.world
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            14 hours ago

            It didn’t work okay for the world they lived in. Alien and Sedition acts were in, what, the second presidency?

  • Gerudo@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    This is starting to exceed even my pessimistic doomsday expectations. And we aren’t even a month in yet.

  • Honytawk
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    15 hours ago

    Elon Musk didn’t install anything. He just gave the order.

    I know for a fact he doesn’t understand anything about server technology.

  • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Tesla dealers now know how much you make, your health, etc…

    Starlink knows your sexual history, financials, health, and physical location

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      To be fair, data brokers already know that stuff. The difference is now Tesla doesn’t have to buy the data.

      • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        In a few years we’re probably going to find out that Musk uses the cameras on Teslas to 1)creep on women he likes 2) spy on politicians for compromising material Between Teslas and Starlink he literally knows where people are.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent
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          16 hours ago

          We already know that tesla corp share footage of anything “fun” around the office. We have known for years.

    • marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works
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      16 hours ago

      Remember the OPM data breach in 2015? This is that, but for all OPM data, instead of some of it or most of it. For those unfamiliar with an SF86 (or eQIP); it’s your entire employment, educational, and residential history. All foreign nationals you maintain contact with, family history, financial history, travel history, anything that may be relevant in granting a security clearance.

      • Thassodar@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        I had to fill one out over a decade ago for a government job, and they even sent letters to the people I put as references to ask if there was any reason I shouldn’t work for the government. Once I got the job that place was super locked down; if you try to (or accidentally) use your badge on a door you’re not cleared for, expect a talking to.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      They literally rolled a server in and plugged it in to send emails…

      I have no idea why what you said is relevant

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        16 hours ago

        Because networks tend to be built like an egg. Hard shell on the outside, soft on the inside. Once you have something inside, it tends to be easier to break the rest.