Elon Musk Aide Given Access to Treasury Payment System by Mistake
Elon Musk’s aide has given access to the treasury payment system by mistake. Early February 2025 saw the mistake of granting editing rights to the U.S. Treasury Department Secure Payment System (SPS) to Marko Elez, a 25 year old software engineer with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Apart from managing trillions of dollars worth of government payments, it also contains the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. The actual mistake occurred on February 5th 2025 when Elez was supposed to be granted read only access but was given read/write permissions instead.
What Does This Means for Data Security?
The fact that a non-government employee was accidentally given an editing account is a serious cause for concern over data security and privacy. SPS contains some critical financial data including Social Security numbers and banking information. Initial investigations note that Elez did not make any unauthorized changes but still this incident clears inescapable vulnerabilities of the system access control. Initiated by the Treasury Department, a forensic investigation is underway, looking at activities carried out during the period of unauthorized access.
This will put at risk the national security of a country concerning possible misuse of sensitive data. The incident has already triggered legal actions, because 19 states have brought a lawsuit since July to block DOGE from accessing the Treasury’s payments systems arguing that such practices are violations of data security and might interfere with federal payments.
In its ruling, the federal judge has issued a temporary injunction to restrain the DOGE from accessing sensitive and classified information within the Treasury Department stressing the need to protect sensitive American personal identification, financial and government information.
This whole matter stands as a reminder of the immense importance of controlling access to government data and oversight on issues pertaining to this information. In this regard, controlling access and trustworthy integrity of these systems constitutes a safeguard of paramount importance in regard to the privacy and trust of the American people.
