The Daily Populous Tuesday April 29th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by npr.org and submitted by RoachedCoach

DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets

toggle caption Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Two members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency were given accounts on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America's nuclear weapons, two sources tell NPR.

Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, and Adam Ramada, a Miami-based venture capitalist, have had accounts on the computer systems for at least two weeks, according to the sources who also have access to the networks. Prior to their work at DOGE, neither Farritor nor Ramada appear to have had experience with either nuclear weapons or handling classified information.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy initially denied that Farritor and Ramada had accessed the networks.

"This reporting is false. No DOGE personnel have accessed these NNSA systems. The two DOGE individuals in question worked within the agency for several days and departed DOE in February," the spokesperson told NPR in an emailed statement.

In a second statement later Monday evening, the spokesperson clarified that the accounts had been created but said they were never used by the DOGE staffers. "DOE is able to confirm that these accounts in question were never activated and have never been accessed," the email statement read.

The two sources contacted by NPR declined to be identified publicly because they were not authorized to speak about the matter to the press. They were able to directly see Ramada and Farritor's names in the directories of the networks. The network directories are visible to thousands of employees involved in nuclear weapons work at facilities and laboratories throughout the U.S., but the networks themselves can only be accessed on specific terminals in secure rooms designated for the handling of classified information.

The DOGE employees' presence on the network would not by itself be enough for them to gain access to that secret information, as data even within the networks is carefully controlled on a need-to-know basis, according to several experts reached by NPR.

In February, CNN reported that DOGE employees, including Farritor, were seeking access to the secretive computer systems. At the time, Energy Secretary Chris Wright denied that they would be allowed on the networks.

"I've heard these rumors, 'They're like seeing our nuclear secrets.' None of that is true at all; they don't have security clearances," Wright told CNBC.

The sources say that the networks in question are used by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the nation's vast nuclear stockpile, and the Department of Defense.

The first network, known as the NNSA Enterprise Secure Network, is used to transmit detailed "restricted data" about America's nuclear weapons designs and the special nuclear materials used in the weapons, among other things. The network is used to transfer this extremely sensitive technical information between the NNSA, the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories and the production facilities that store, maintain and upgrade the nation's nuclear arsenal.

The second network, known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), is used by the Department of Defense to communicate with the Department of Energy about nuclear weapons. SIPRNet is also used more broadly for sharing information classified at the secret level, information that "could potentially damage or harm national security if it were to get out," explained a former career civil servant at the Department of Defense who requested anonymity to discuss classified systems.

Access to both networks would normally require a "Q" clearance, the highest level of security clearance at the Department of Energy. Obtaining a Q clearance is a lengthy process, but can be expedited in certain cases.

It remains unclear just how much access to classified data the two DOGE staffers could have actually had if they had used their accounts. Another source familiar with the matter, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, due to sensitivities around the Department of Energy's systems that hold classified information, said that the presence of DOGE officials on DOE's classified systems would represent an escalation in DOGE's recent privileges inside the agency, but those accounts would not give them carte blanche access to all files hosted on those systems.

They described the access as a "toehold" that would allow DOGE staffers to request information classified at the secret level. "They're getting a little further in, it's something to make note of," they concluded. "It could lead to something bigger."

The DOE statement did not explain why the accounts were created, but DOGE employees might have wanted access to classified information in order to discuss program details and future budget priorities, says Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks America's nuclear program.

Although large portions of the nuclear weapons budget are ultimately unclassified, a lot of classified details likely go into setting those numbers. "I don't think any of that would be open," he says.

NNSA has already felt the effects of the Trump administration's efforts to slash the government. In February, hundreds of workers were fired from the nuclear agency at the direction of DOGE. The decision was quickly reversed however, and ultimately fewer than 50 employees were dismissed, according to the agency.

News of the accounts comes amid growing concern about DOGE's handling of data elsewhere in the government.

Earlier this month, NPR reported on a whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board who had evidence that DOGE employees got high level access and may have copied and removed sensitive data from internal systems at their agency. The DOGE team asked that their activities not be logged on the system and then appeared to try and cover their tracks by turning off monitoring tools and deleting records of their access. Employees at the NLRB became concerned, particularly after detecting suspicious log-in attempts from an IP address in Russia using the newly created DOGE credentials.

It also comes during a controversy over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's use of the publicly available encrypted messaging app Signal to send sensitive details of a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hegseth's use of the app became public after the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included on one chat. Last week, the New York Times reported about a second chat that included Hegseth's wife, brother and personal lawyer.

NPR disclosure: Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, chairs the board of the Signal Foundation.

ClosPins on April 28th, 2025 at 19:51 UTC »

Remember how Republicans screamed 'LOCK HER UP' for years and years and years - because Hillary used a private server for encrypted email?

supercyberlurker on April 28th, 2025 at 18:35 UTC »

Just a reminder that the person ultimately responsible here is not Musk - it's Trump.

It's through Musk's 250 million to Trump, executive powers, and bullying congress - that DOGE happened.

BOTH are responsible for the fiasco. Don't even get me started on the literal AI powered privacy-raping nightmare they are building in Memphis called Colossus - built on our stolen private data.

MikeOKurias on April 28th, 2025 at 18:32 UTC »

Remember when the consequence for this was being sent to Federal, pound-you-in-the-ass Prison.

Sucks that we elected a convict who is so weak he cannot even prevent the crimes going on right under his nose.