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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Rhian Lubin

DOGE’s hastily launched website has already been hacked: ‘This is a joke of a .gov site’

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s website has already been hacked after it was hastily launched earlier this week, and has reportedly leaked classified information.

DOGE’s website launched Wednesday as Musk vowed the department would be “maximally transparent.”

“I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization,” Musk bragged in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump this week.

But the launch got off to a rocky start after two pages on DOGE’s site were defaced by hackers, 404 Media first reported.

Two messages appeared on the site on Friday afternoon, with one saying: “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN - roro.”

The other said: “This is a joke of a .gov site.” Both messages were since removed.

Web development experts told 404 that the site “feels like it was completely slapped together,” and contained “tons of errors and details leaked in the page source code.”

The two sources, who the outlet did not name, said that they believed DOGE’s site is not running on government servers.

DOGE also came under fire for posting classified staffing information of a U.S. intelligence agency online, HuffPost first reported.

A function on the website allows users to “Trace your tax dollars through the bureaucracy.” Users can explore Cabinet-level agencies and other departments to review their headcounts and total wages earned.

A footnote at the bottom of the page claims that the data excludes the military, Postal Service, White House and intelligence agencies. HuffPost reported, however, that DOGE’s database provides details on the federal agency that builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) appears to be the only intelligence agency on DOGE’s database.

Musk’s SpaceX holds a $1.8 billion contract with NRO to build spy satellites, HuffPost reported.

“People are scrambling to check if their info has been accessed,” a Defense Intelligence Agency staffer told the outlet.

An NRO spokesperson deferred to DOGE when HuffPost contacted them for comment.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

As Musk and his DOGE team have gone on a cost-cutting rampage, firing thousands of federal employees, the department has doubled its own spending budget in recent days.

The initiative said in late January it had spent $6.75 million, a figure updated to $14.4 million by February 8, according to government records obtained by Fortune.

The new spending was on “anticipated reimbursements from agencies in support of Software Modernization Initiative,” according to the records.

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