The Muscovites Have Hacked the Government
Cyber Security? Not for Them!
Disclaimer: This post was written by Dr. Andrew Rosenberg in his personal capacity and not on behalf of any organization or entity. The views expressed herein are Dr. Rosenberg’s and his alone.
Another day and another agency is being hacked from the inside. Think how frustrating this must be for foreign adversaries who have spent years trying to get inside US government systems to weaken our institutions. Apparently, they just needed to recruit a few young engineers with no clue about government and walk up to the door, flash a badge, and say, “Take me to your IT”. Full access! No firewalls. No need to say what you are doing. Or why you’re doing it, because saying “Musk told me to do it” just wouldn’t fly. And privacy? Confidential business information? “No we don’t care about that.”
So goes the story of the ill-named Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE). It’s not a department. It has nothing to do with improving democratic government nor do its purveyors have any knowledge of the actual workings of our government. It has nothing to do with efficiency either -- in any sense of the word. A better name coined by Rep. Ayana Pressley is Dangerous Oligarchs Grab Everything. Fits better.
Because DOGE is operating without any transparency at all (i.e., they aren’t honestly telling anyone what they are doing), it is only possible to get snippets of what is happening in different agencies. While it should be the case that civil service employees and contractors are free to speak out about what’s happening, it is clear that a primary tactic of DOGE is to use threats and intimidation to keep everyone on edge. Ask a question, you’re on administrative leave, or fired. We are looking into your records, your pay, your pension…
Most of the written offer for people to take deferred retirement is a threat. The Administration letter and communications tell you that if you don’t take this offer, there will be layoffs and your job might disappear or you may be re-assigned. Never mind that there is no legal authority to place people on indefinite administrative leave, or to pay them deferred retirement. Or to fire them without cause (which doesn’t include, “because we feel like it” or “you think diversity is a good thing.” The DOGE thought police are in the house).
DOGEing the Government
I have already written about DOGE at NOAA. That’s been confirmed by numerous sources and now the staffs of at least two members of congress. Since my last post, there is good information that DOGEers are into the IT system with read/write privileges, despite Musk and others saying they only have read only permission. In fact, the boys have the ability to change all NOAA webpages. Their engineers are into the email system to try to ensure no one can communicate without their knowledge. That’s a commonly used tactic pioneered by Stalin and other fine entrepreneurs. They are searching for anything vaguely related to DEI because they believe fairness has no place in our government. Nor should it include people other than friends of the President or the co-President (you fill in the names as you see fit). It isn’t yet clear how much they will attempt to cut agency staff or budget. The numbers floating around are 50% of staff and 30% of budget. Of course that covers a lot of grants, contracts, and programs. While many may think this is just about Washington D.C., most of NOAA is based all around the country. In every state. On every coast. So, they are talking about firing your neighbors. Canceling contracts for more job losses. Ending grants for universities and many other institutions in your state.
DOGE is at NSF too, my scientist colleagues. There are scary comments from the Trump Administration about drastic reductions in staff in an effort to scare NSF staff into taking the dubiously legal deferred retirement offer. Reportedly, the DOGE boys have a list of words they are trolling for as they search programs and grants, along with personnel files -- clearly sowing a lot of confusion. Now that’s the way to review scientific work isn’t? Never tried that on the peer reviews and panels I have been on, so I guess I was off the mark.
Of course, the EPA hasn’t escaped the DOGE takeover of government. After all, sometimes those pesky rules that try to prevent the release of dangerous toxics into our air, water, environment get in the way of someone making another few billion. There is profit at stake. Wouldn’t it be better if businesses and businesspeople like Elon Musk could just do whatever they want and make a lot of money? Oh wait…..
At EPA, any work on environmental justice has already been axed. Again, the DOGE boys are trolling through the systems looking for cuts. Don’t recognize that? Cut it. Don’t understand? Chop.
The new leadership has already demoted the senior science and enforcement staff at EPA. Because after all if you don’t have the science, your actions and policies must be A-OK, safe, and certainly not harmful right? And if you don’t enforce the rules, then there won’t be any violations. That’s DOGE logic.
What’s a Worried Scientist to Do about DOGE?
If all of this sounds to you, well, awful as it does to me, what can we do? There are more and more signs every day that members of Congress (so far only democrats but let’s change that) are pushing back against DOGE. They need to hear from constituents. Red state, blue state, purple state, doesn’t matter. They ALL need to hear from their constituents that handing over the nation’s science enterprise to the oligarchs must be resisted. Even if you think your representatives in the House and Senate know, you should write or call or show up in their office. They need to be constantly reassured that this is important to their constituency. In their district or state. This isn’t just a DC game.
So far, the Republicans in the House and Senate have been, in a word, supine about DOGE (and many other things). But its their districts and constituents that will face the costs. Costs of cancelled science programs, closed labs, students unable to finish their degree requirements, laid off scientists not just federal scientists. And it is your private information that is being bandied about. Look, if they aren’t respecting and keeping confidential the details of recent hires at the CIA putting peoples live immediately at risk, do you think they will respect the privacy of scientists and other grantees? Think again. Your representatives need to know you care about this.
Your federal science colleagues and agency staff are under enormous pressure. Be supportive. This is everyone’s problem. They need to hear they have support, after being told over and over by the President, co-President and their minions that they are worthless and should be booted out. Write to your local paper. Post messages of support on social media. Anything is better than silence.
Use our toolkit! Keep up on what’s happening. We are trying to help and there are many others in this fight. I know it is hard on everyone to hear so much bad news, so take a break when you need to, but come back when you can!
Help us gather and use new information. We have set up a confidential tipline in partnership with HEATED to give people a chance to get information out. We will write about it, pass it on to other media and to organizations that are trying to push back in the courts as well as protect civil servants. Share the tipline and be part of unDOGEing our government!
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