The Table Manners of a Billionaire Pig

 

Last December, before Earth went wobbly on its spindle, the US Department of the Treasury wrote a letter to Congress informing it that a Chinese intelligence group had broken into its systems and stolen unclassified material. "A full assessment of that damage has not been made public. But it was a reminder that the Treasury Department — as much as the Pentagon and its contractors, the C.I.A. and the White House — is high on Beijing’s target list" (David E. Sanger, NYTimes).

So here come Elon Musk's band of Silicon Valley hotshot bandits and misfits (at least one as young as 19), with a whole lot more access to Treasury's databases than just "READ ONLY." "Across the federal government, civil servants have witnessed the sudden intrusion in the last two weeks of these young members of the billionaire’s team, labeled the Department of Government Efficiency. As Mr. Musk traipses through Washington, bent on disruption, these aides have emerged as his enforcers, sweeping into agency headquarters with black backpacks and ambitious marching orders" (NYTimes).

They were opening a lot more than their backpacks, and that was precisely the source of Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's order on Saturday to stop these rodents from boring into secrets about every American and his/her money, at least until a trial can be held. Judge Engelmayer cited the risk specifically of the ever-present threat of hacks by foreign adversaries, “the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information.” The Musk Squad's Easter egg hunt looked sloppy and dangerous.

The request for Judge Engelmayer's temporary restraining order came after some 19 attorneys general (North Carolina's Jeff Jackson among them) filed suit on Friday. It took Engelmayer less than 24 hours to (theoretically) shut down Musk Squad's fishing. ("Theoretically," because Trump's appointments are also now occupying the department and have full access to everything, and who the hell knows who they'll share it with.)

Outside experts have described, in detail, what could happen when an outsider gains sudden access to a locked-down system: Personal data could leak, payments could be diverted and information about political rivals could be collected.

Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard and the author of a series of books on security vulnerabilities, including “Click Here to Kill Everybody,” called the entry of Mr. Musk’s force “the most consequential security breach” in American history.

Mr. Schneier noted that the intrusion came “not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role.” ...

“Hostile intelligence services are likely already at work trying to assess which Musk team members might be sloppy with their digital devices or vulnerable to entrapment or coercion.” (NYTimes)

Wired magazine named six of Musk's "Spartans" (as they like to call themselves, mythologizing their own personal pains), ranging in age from 19 to 24. They've been raised all their life on computers and social media, which means sarcasm and spite, so what could possibly go wrong giving them full access to all our information?