Musk Team’s Treasury Access Raises Security Anxieties, Despite Judge’s Ordered Halt

A national court’s request to temporarily ban Elon Musk’s team from entering the Treasury Department’s payment systems raises a much bigger question: Does Elon Musk’s claim that the Department of Government Performance is creating a significant digital and national security risk?

The activities of Mr. Musk’s state cost-cutting work, U. S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in his attempt on Saturday, risk” the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information” and provide the Treasury’s systems “more susceptible than before to hacking”.

Security experts have been raising concerns about this threat over the last ten days as Mr. Musk’s band of talented coders demanded entry to the Treasury’s deepest systems. That entry was eventually by Scott Bessent, the recently confirmed Treasury director.

There was no explanation of how their work would be secured, aside from obscure claims that the new arrivals at the Treasury’s entrance had right certifications, and there was plenty of reason to believe that this would make it easier for Chinese and Russian intelligence services to target the Treasury’s systems.

19 lawyers general’s main argument was that this was the main point of their request for a temporary restraining order to expel Mr. Musk’s employees from the Treasury systems. Additionally, Judge Engelmayer approved it on Saturday, limiting accessibility to existing Treasury officers until a hearing next year in front of a diverse federal prosecutor.

The government has maintained that Mr. Musk’s team has been limited to reviewing “read-only” information in the Treasury Department’s systems, though the presidency is then placing officials in positions where they could do much more.