DOGE access was in breach of the privacy act, said U.S. District Judge Denise Cote.
The Office of Personnel Management was found to have violated the law by providing the Department of Government Efficiency with access to its databases containing information on current and former federal workers, as well as job seekers.
According to The Hill, such access allowed DOGE to send government buyout email offers to employees. However this was in breach of the privacy act, said U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in a ruling that approved an injunction prohibiting further DOGE access on OPM databases.
Cote also noted the action to be in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.
"The plaintiffs have pointed to clear evidence that the DOGE agents did not need access to the records disclosed to them, much less the administrative access that they were given... Database administrators who were responsible for the normal functioning of those systems had their access revoked," said Cote.
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Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
