*

DOGE accessed records of Treasury and State Department

officials

*

White House says DOGE agents have proper clearances and

read-only access

*

Concerns over cybersecurity risks due to DOGE's access to

OPM

systems

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) -

Agents working for billionaire Elon Musk have accessed

highly restricted government records on millions of federal

employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, the

Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing four U.S. officials

with knowledge of the developments.

The records accessed by Musk's Department of Government

Efficiency (DOGE) included Treasury and State Department

officials in sensitive security positions, according to the

newspaper.

The Post cited records it had obtained showing several members

of the DOGE team run by the South African-born billionaire were

granted "administrative" access to OPM computer systems days

after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

"That gives them sweeping authority to install and modify

software on government-supplied equipment and, according to two

OPM officials, to alter internal documentation of their own

activities," the Post wrote.

A representative for DOGE did not immediately return a

request for comment on details of the Post report. The White

House has said DOGE agents are working in compliance with

federal law.

A White House official told Reuters the people who are

doing this work have the proper clearances at the respective

agencies, went through onboarding and have read-only access.

Asked why they are looking at the records of security officials

or staff at all, the official said looking at the organizational

charts is part of every restructuring.

Musk, the Tesla owner tasked by Trump to slash the

size of the 2.2 million-member civilian government workforce,

has

moved swiftly

to install allies at the agency.

OPM systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human

Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social

Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and

length of service of government workers, the officials said.

Core units focused on modernizing OPM's network and

improving accountability are "likely to go away," one senior

agency official said during a team meeting Wednesday, according

to a recording obtained by the newspaper.

Halting IT upgrades and giving access to OPM systems to

outsiders who could install new programs could pose

cybersecurity risks for an agency that has been repeatedly

hacked by foreign intelligence services, the Post reported.

A senior OPM official, during a team meeting Wednesday,

said that core units focused on modernizing the agency's network

and improving accountability are "likely to go away," according

to a recording of the session obtained by The Post. Those who

have been reassigned at the agency include the chief information

officer and the chief financial officer.

Some of the Musk team members were in their early 20s and

came from positions at private companies, it reported. The Post

cited one official as saying a young DOGE team member screamed

at senior developers and called them "idiots."