Government workers sue over potentially illegal DOGE server

Federal employees are suing to disconnect a server, reportedly operated by associates of Elon Musk, from the US Office of Personnel Management. A motion filed today as part of a class action suit and obtained by Wired claims that the new server connected to OPM systems is a violation of federal laws as well as a privacy risk for government staffers.
The OPM is essentially the federal government’s human resources department, and it houses sensitive personal information about current and prospective employees. The email server is reportedly harvesting information from OPM’s data systems, according to the initial lawsuit that is seeking to block Musk’s access to that private information. Government agencies are required to conduct privacy assessments before making substantial changes to IT systems under the 2002 E-Government Act, but today’s motion alleges the OPM did not perform that assessment before the server was installed.
On Friday, Reuters reported that senior officials at the OPM were locked out of the department’s data systems, ostensibly by Musk’s allies.