A representative from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was granted access to the Energy Department’s IT system on Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, two people with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Wright granted access to DOGE representative Luke Farritor — a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern — even over objections from members of the department’s general counsel and chief information offices, the people told CNN. The DOE chief information office is the department’s IT and cybersecurity office.
Members of the general counsel and chief information offices “said this is a bad idea” because Farritor hadn’t had a standard background investigation needed to access the department’s system, one of the people told CNN. “He’s not cleared to be in DOE, on our systems. None of those things have been done.”
Farritor was granted access to basic IT including email and Microsoft 365, one of the people said.
On Friday, department leadership installed a different SpaceX engineer, Ryan Riedel, as chief information officer, three people familiar with the matter told CNN — the department’s top IT official charged with managing tech acquisitions and protecting personnel data across a vast bureaucracy.
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