Court filing: DOGE aide broke Treasury policy by emailing unencrypted database

My credit report is just names and dollar amounts too. I don’t want the whole world having access to it.

hyperbole would be the wrong word. It think misinformation would be the correct word since the allegations were false rather than exaggerated.

Yep

This is exactly what the court filing says - he emailed excel spreadsheets with unencrypted data. Presumably from database queries hence why they mention emailing a database. Obviously written by people who are entirely unfamiliar with what a database even is so it makes it sound worse than it is (even though it is still bad, but not quite "send the entire database" bad.)

It might surprise the good readers of Hacker News, but by reading TFA, and the linked PDF therein, answers may be revealed!

> 12. The forensic analysis also revealed that Elez sent an email with a spreadsheet containing PII to two United States General Services Administration officials. The PII detailed a name (aperson or an entity), a transaction type, and an amount of money. The names in the spreadsheet are considered low risk PII because the names are not accompanied by more specific identifiers, such as social security numbers or birth dates. Elez’s distribution of this spreadsheet was contrary to BFS policies, in that it was not sent encrypted, and he did not obtain prior approval of the transmission via a “Form 7005,” describing what will be sent and what safeguards the sender will implement to protect the information.

OK that makes a lot more sense. Thankyou.

Everyone in this thread should read this filing; it's only a couple of pages.

Previous background on Ryan Wunderly and Marko Elez: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/treasury-irs-data-w...

"Treasury said Ryan Wunderly will replace Marko Elez on the agency’s DOGE team. Elez examined the federal payments system housed at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service before he resigned from Treasury earlier this month after The Wall Street Journal surfaced racist social media posts."

Unless he's resigned again in recent weeks and I've missed it, Elez was brought back within days of his resignation after a short campaign to manufacture consent by JD Vance and Musk.

He was reinstated quickly at the order of the vice president. It's been strange getting older and seeing aspects of politics I thought were fairly fundamental quickly change. I remember not too long ago when accusations of racism were considered slanderous attacks by liberals on conservatives, and now they are apparently reveling in racism because it bothers liberals. It's no way to run a government if you ask me, but no one seems interested in my (seemingly) outdated opinions.