The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost recently spoke with four longtime experts in government information technology about the actions that Elon Musk is taking to upend the federal government and none of them had anything comforting to say.
In fact, Warzel and Bogost describe all four experts as "terrified and struggling to articulate the scale of the crisis" being sparked by Musk and his minions at the Department of Government Efficiency.
One source who spoke with The Atlantic expressed particular alarm at the sheer scope of government data being taken by Musk and his minions.
“This is the largest data breach and the largest IT security breach in our country’s history—at least that’s publicly known,” one contractor who has worked on classified information-security systems at numerous government agencies told the outlet this week. “You can’t un-ring this bell. Once these DOGE guys have access to these data systems, they can ostensibly do with it what they want.”
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The potential dangers opened up by giving Musk's lackeys unfettered access to this level of data range from potentially disabling airline safety systems to exposing federal employees to blackmail by foreign agents, among many other things.
These possibilities are much more dangerous, The Atlantic's sources added, if the DOGE crew have really been given access to rewrite code used in federal payment systems.
"That these guys, who may not even have clearances, are just pulling up and plugging in their own servers is madness,” one source said. “It’s really hard to find good analogies for how big of a deal this is.”