It is a “technical-legal error”, which allowed Marko Elez, a former employee of X aged 25, and Tom Krause, a manager of Silicon Valley, to access the secure payment system (SPS ) of the US Treasury Department, responsible for distributing more than $ 5,000 billion in federal funds each year. The Bureau of the Budget Service of the Treasury (BFS) announced that it had opened an investigation to understand how these relatives of Elon Musk were able to access these features, while American justice blocks the access of the commission on government efficiency ( DOGE), to the secure payment system of the Treasury.
While Marko Elez was to receive the possibility of studying a database under the supervision of the Budget Service Office, he had error access to features allowing him to modify it. These sensitive data include the bank and social security account numbers of millions of Americans. “It was discovered that access to the SPS database given on February 5 was configured by mistake with a reading/writing permission instead of reading only,” said Joseph Gioeli, head of the BFS, in his Declaration under oath filed Tuesday February 11 with a federal judge.
No abnormal operations carried out
“A technical-legal survey was immediately carried out concerning all the actions carried out. The first elements made it possible to conclude that the interactions were part of supervised sessions and that no unauthorized act had been carried out” , he added. Access had been given, via a Treasury laptop, to Marko Elez, pushed to resign Friday after the publication by the Wall Street Journal From its links with an X account with multiple racist posts or advocating eugenics.
Another member of the DOGE, Thomas Krause, also sent a statement to the same judge on Tuesday, specifying that he was employed by the Treasury and not remunerated, as “Technology Advisor and Modernization of the Department”, with a role of “Secretary Assistant to the budget “, even if he has” not yet actually assumed these functions “. “Although I am in coordination with DOGE officials, I keep them regularly informed of the progress of the team and that I receive high-level guidelines from them, I am not an employee of the DOGE” A-T -It specified in its declaration, adding that the committee team within the treasure consisted of itself and Marko Elez.
“Consequences on national security”
Treasury employees that Joseph Gioeli mentioned in their deposition “measures they have taken to alleviate potential cybersecurity threats, including monitoring Marko Elez activities,” said the New York Times.
The DOGE has no federal status, which would require the approval of the congress, and neither Elon Musk nor the members of Doge are federal employees or government officials. Uncertainty also remains as to the question of which the Commission is accountable.
A former SpaceX employee, Marko Elez obtained authorization to access the SPS of the US Treasury, who is responsible for distributing thousands of billions of dollars in federal funds. A court decision before his resignation, on February 6, had limited his access to simple consultation after the concerns expressed by associations and democrats elected officials, which wondered about the “consequences on national and economic security”.