Without the slightest empowerment, two young men were identified on the servers of the Federal Agency responsible for nuclear security in the United States. For two weeks, their names were on the directories of a system supposed to be accessible only from ultra secure rooms. A revelation that constested the American Congress and leaves a doubt about the actual magnitude of the intrusion.
According to the online media Futurism, the two agents of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) concerned are Luke Farritor, ex-stalker of Spacex aged 23, and Adam Ramada, ventilation analyst. The system concerned is used by the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA), the Barantine Protection of the United States nuclear arsenal. To date, no one knows precisely if the accounts have been really used, even if their simple existence worries.
Luke Farritor had also had access to the computer system of the United States energy department, despite the fierce opposition of its employees. The Ministry of Energy, which initially denied the facts, ended up recognizing the existence of the accounts, but assures that they have never been activated.
This is not an isolated case since Doge, whose practices are subject to controversy, seems to be the source of several dubious intrusions. Directed by Elon Musk, the government structure has already drawn attention by consulting and manipulating sensitive data, as well as announcing the dismissal of hundreds of employees of the NNSA, before retracting.
Repeated errors
Daniel Berulis, a whistleblower of the NLRB (National Council for Labor Relations (NLRB), says that the DOGE would have enabled a massive data leak by deliberately ignoring the security rules. Valid identifiers for a DOGE user account were even found on an IP address in Russia.
Imprudence does not only characterize the department of Elon Musk, but the entire government of Donald Trump, which accumulates embarrassing episodes. The most blatant case is that of Pete Hegseth, defense secretary of the United States, behind the “signalgate”. Sensitive military discussions had been sent by mistake through the Signal application, to a group where a journalist of the American magazine was found.
The case of the two intruders in the country’s nuclear servers may only be the visible part of the iceberg. Between private interests and public authorities, DOGE practices seem to strongly weaken essential government infrastructure. And all of this, in a hundred days barely.
