Elon Musk Aide Gains Unintended Access to U.S. Treasury Payment System: Investigation Underway

AFP | USA 
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An aide to Elon Musk inadvertently gained access to the U.S. Treasury Department's sensitive Secure Payment System (SPS), raising serious concerns about data security. The incident, which occurred in early February, has drawn attention to potential risks involving Musk's aides, who hold no official government positions, and their access to systems handling trillions of dollars in government payments and personal information of millions of Americans.

According to Joseph Gioeli, an official from the Treasury’s payments section, Marko Elez, a 25-year-old employee working under Musk's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was mistakenly granted “read/write” access to the system instead of the intended “read-only” permission.

“On the morning of February 6, it was discovered that Mr. Elez's database access to SPS on February 5 had mistakenly been configured with read/write permissions instead of read-only,” Gioeli stated. A forensic investigation was promptly initiated, confirming that Elez's actions were conducted within a supervised environment and no unauthorized changes had been made.

Despite the investigation's findings, the incident has sparked widespread concern, particularly among critics of the Trump administration's decision to involve Musk in government efficiency efforts. DOGE, which lacks formal congressional authorization, is not recognized as a federal entity, and its staff, including Elez, are not federal employees.

The investigation revealed that Elez, who had accessed the system via a Treasury laptop, was one of two DOGE employees to have gained access to the sensitive payment system. The Treasury Department was warned of the "unprecedented insider threat risk" posed by this unapproved access.

The controversy deepened when Elez resigned on February 9 after being linked to a racist social media account, further complicating the situation.

The investigation into this matter is ongoing, with Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups urging further scrutiny over the potential risks to national security, the economy, and the protection of personal data. Before his resignation, Elez was reportedly forced by a court order to revert his permissions to read-only.

This incident underscores growing concerns about the expanding influence of private-sector figures like Musk in government operations and the security implications of allowing non-government personnel access to critical systems.