Trump admin denies DOGE put Social Security data into insecure cloud system

The Trump administration has firmly countered allegations made by a whistleblower regarding the handling of sensitive Social Security data. In a detailed letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano addressed claims that officials from the Social Security Administration (SSA) had transferred the Numerical Identification System (NUMIDENT) database to an unprotected cloud environment. According to Bisignano, the server referenced in the whistleblower's report is actually a secure part of the agency's cloud infrastructure that has been under consistent monitoring. The NUMIDENT database contains critical personally identifiable information of American citizens, and the SSA maintains strict protocols to ensure its security. Bisignano, who was appointed by Trump and previously led the financial technology firm Fiserv, stated, "Based on the agency's thorough review, neither the Numident database nor any of its data has been accessed, leaked, hacked, or shared in any unauthorized manner." He emphasized that the SSA continuously checks its systems for any unauthorized access and has found no evidence of breaches concerning the NUMIDENT database. The controversy gained traction after Chuck Borges, the former Chief Data Officer of SSA, alleged that DOGE officials had created a live copy of the Social Security information in a cloud setup that bypasses standard oversight. This assertion was supported by the Government Accountability Project, which advocates for whistleblower protections, claiming that the cloud setup lacks adequate security measures and oversight from the SSA. In his letter, Bisignano clarified that the SSA has been using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store personal information for almost a decade and denied that the NUMIDENT database was ever transferred to a private cloud server within the SSA's AWS infrastructure. He reiterated that no such private cloud exists within their secure AWS framework.