Data Access Dangers
In an interview with PBS, a Yale professor and former Treasury worker named Natasha Sarin claims that DOGE auditing the IRS taxpayer database raises “real concerns about this type of data being accessed by our adversaries and being used against us.”
IN FACT, Sarin admits that all IRS customer service representatives have access to the database, and she neglects to mention that an IRS contractor stole and leaked thousands of tax returns, including Donald Trump’s.
She also fails to mention that China hacked substantially more dangerous data during the Obama administration:
- In 2015, cyber specialists associated with the government of China hacked the Obama administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and obtained the background investigation records of 21.5 million U.S. government employees.
- Per OPM, it is “highly likely” this hack exposed virtually all federal employees, including those with “Top Secret level clearance.”
- The stolen information included their Social Security numbers, financial histories, fingerprints, and “information about immediate family and personal and business acquaintances.”
- Per the Defense Personnel Security Research Center, background investigation records may contain information about an “individual’s vulnerability to coercion, exploitation or duress” that “may affect the person’s personal, professional, or community standing or render the person susceptible to blackmail.”
Despite the seriousness of this breach, the Obama/Biden administration took no public recourse against China and refused to say whether it had taken any actions at all.
