DOGE's tentacles spread DOGE accesses federal payroll system and punishes employees who objected Report: IT officials who fought DOGE access put on leave and under investigation. Jon Brodkin Mar 31, 2025 4:00 pm | 24 Elon Musk at a meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. Credit: Getty Images | Jim Watson/AFP Elon Musk at a meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. Credit: Getty Images | Jim Watson/AFP Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreElon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gained access "to a payroll system that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across dozens of agencies," despite "objections from senior IT staff who feared it could compromise highly sensitive government personnel information" and lead to cyberattacks, The New York Times reported today.The system at the Interior Department gives DOGE "visibility into sensitive employee information, such as Social Security numbers, and the ability to more easily hire and fire workers," the NYT wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. DOGE workers had been trying to get access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System for about two weeks and succeeded over the weekend, the report said."The dispute came to a head on Saturday, as the DOGE workers obtained the access and then placed two of the IT officials who had resisted them on administrative leave and under investigation, the people said," according to the NYT report. The agency's CIO and CISO are reportedly under investigation for their "workplace behavior."When contacted by Ars today, the Interior Department said, "We are working to execute the President's directive to cut costs and make the government more efficient for the American people and have taken actions to implement President Trump's Executive Orders."DOGE's access to federal systems continues to grow despite court rulings that ordered the government to cut DOGE off from specific records, such as those held by the Social Security Administration, Treasury Department, Department of Education, and Office of Personnel Management.DOGE's new access at Interior allows "at least two DOGE employees, Stephanie Holmes and Katrine Trampe... to make changes to employment status, compensation level, health benefits and morewith no additional oversight or approval required," the NYT report said.Memo warned against DOGE accessThe NYT obtained a memo written by senior career employees who objected to DOGE's access. "Such elevated access to critical high-value asset systems is rare with respect to individual systems and no single DoI official presently has access to all HR, payroll and credentialing systems," the memo reportedly said.The memo "also warned that individuals with the elevated access to the system could become prime targets for cybersecurity attacks by terrorists, nations or other malicious actors," the NYT wrote. The memo reportedly said that such access "typically requires training and certification... Without formal qualifications, the Department may experience significant failure because of operator error."Musk told Fox News last week that DOGE is working on "reconciling all the government databases to eliminate the waste and fraud. These databases don't talk to each other... it's frankly painful homework, but it has to be done and it will greatly improve the efficiency of government systems."A federal appeals court ruled last week that Musk and DOGE don't have to turn over information related to their government cost-cutting operations, reversing a district court judge's previous decision. The case was brought by 14 states alleging that "President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 24 Comments