SSA IG Probes Alleged Data Theft by Ex-DOGE Employee

The Social Security Administration's inspector general has launched an investigation into a whistleblower complaint alleging that a former employee with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, copied sensitive databases containing personal information on more than 500 million Americans onto a thumb drive and intended to use the data at a new private-sector job. The probe, disclosed in a March 6 letter to members of congressional oversight committees, centers on actions by a software engineer who worked at the agency last year before joining a government contractor in October.

According to the anonymous complaint, the engineer told colleagues he possessed copies of two restricted systems: the Numerical Identification System, known as Numident, which serves as the master database for Social Security numbers and related enumeration data, and the Master Death File, a dataset of reported deaths used for benefit eligibility, fraud prevention, and identity verification. These records include Social Security numbers, dates and places of birth, citizenship status, race and ethnicity, and parents' names for both living and deceased individuals. The whistleblower alleged the...