DOGE IT systems impact focus of inspector general’s investigation

Lawmakers concerned about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s impact on federal IT systems got some welcome news March 7. That’s when the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Deputy Inspector General Norbert Vint sent a letter to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee promising an investigation into the risks from DOGE, specifically how the administration’s initiative is infiltrating federal IT systems.

Running concern. Democrats had shared their fears about how OPM was operating under the control of Musk and DOGE in a Feb. 6 letter to the OPM’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

“We are deeply concerned that unauthorized system access could be occurring across the federal government and could pose a major threat to the personal privacy of all Americans and to the national security of our nation,” Democratic lawmakers, led by Oversight Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, wrote at the time.

Stu Panensky, founding partner at Pierson Ferdinand whose work focuses on cybersecurity and privacy, told IT Brew that part of the reason for the DOGE upheaval is the radical scope of its work.

“There is a risk anytime that there’s a change in technology or a change in workforce for additional security concerns around identity theft, which is where my subject matter expertise is in,” Panensky said. “And this is no different.”

Locked in. In the OIG letter, made public on March 10, Vint said that his office is already covering some of the fears expressed in the letter and that he would add their further concerns into ongoing work and “also initiated a new engagement on specific emerging risks at OPM.”

“Several of the concerns you expressed in your letter touch on issues that the OPM OIG evaluates as part of our annual reviews of OPM’s IT and financial systems, and we plan to incorporate those concerns into these existing projects,” Vint wrote. “We have also just begun an engagement to assess risks associated with new and modified information systems at OPM.”