The Government's Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified | Hacker News Reader

The Government's Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified

theatlantic.com

39 pointsxnx9 comments

At what point will we have to assume that any systems touched by doge are compromised/backdoored?

Almost certainly. The college-age stooges are the type to brag about their work and deep access. Perfect targets for foreign intelligence to turn them into assets, witting or not. Money, women, status, drink; any half-competent intelligence officer will know exactly what buttons to press with Elon's goon squad.

Given that government lawyers are unable to answer questions about who has access and what they're doing with it, I'd say that point has come and gone.

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"I'm not sure that is accurate, and I just don't have -- I'm not, I just don't have the information necessarily," Humphreys responded.

> Given that government lawyers are unable to answer questions about who has access and what they're doing with it, I'd say that point has come and gone.

Which is the most basic question that any audit(or) will ask and that needs to be answerable for any security certification. If you don't know who has access to your system, or how it has been (potentially) changed, how can you be sure it's still your system?

> At what point will we have to assume that any systems touched by doge are compromised/backdoored?

You assume it is compromised the moment they gain access.

See "A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’":

* https://www.wired.com/story/treasury-bfs-doge-insider-threat...

And "Treasury was warned DOGE access to payments marked an ‘insider threat’":

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/07/...

* https://archive.is/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-s...

That point was a few days ago.

When the Chinese exploit them... :\

I imagine this would be like if my company got a new temporary CEO, paid purely in cash, with a 4-year visa and diplomatic immunity from his home country.

And then he brings in a bunch of "old associates" who run around demanding all the master passwords, 2FA recovery codes, and even access to change the audit logs... or else you'll be fired.

Meanwhile, some others are gleefully talking about how their superior fresh outsider perspective will allow them to seamlessly replace That Big Old System that nobody likes but which if it vanishes the company can't serve customers or can't pay bills or gets lawsuit'ed into oblivion.

> The contractor emphasized that nobody yet knows which information DOGE has access to, or what it plans to do with it.

The most-charitable I can possibly go on this is that it will be Twitter all over again [0]: They will cherry-pick records, leak access to hand-picked pieces, and lie they've found the Loch Ness Monster of Somebody Else Being Bad, trusting that not enough people will have the inclination/access/time to check before it becomes "a fact" in supporters' minds.

[0] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/the-twitter-files-playbo...

Government experts have a rather poor track record when arguing some point in the media.

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