SSA Chief Data Officer Files Complaint Over DOGE Social Security Data Exposure

Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, has filed a whistleblower complaint accusing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a team created by Elon Musk and embedded in the federal government, of uploading the entire Social Security Numident database—containing sensitive personal information of over 300 million Americans—to an unsecured cloud server. Borges warns this move exposed Americans to significant risks of identity theft, loss of vital benefits, and potentially costly reissuance of Social Security numbers. Despite internal security warnings and descriptions of the project as "high risk" with "catastrophic impact," senior officials, including former Musk executive Aram Moghaddassi, dismissed these concerns, accepting the risks to meet business needs. The Supreme Court had recently overturned a lower court ruling, allowing DOGE access to SSA data, after which the data transfer occurred. While no breach has been reported, there is a lack of independent security monitoring and audit oversight for the data once moved, raising concerns about potential misuse or leaks. The SSA maintains that the data is stored in secure environments and that it takes whistleblower complaints seriously, but the incident has intensified scrutiny of DOGE’s handling of sensitive government data.