'Go haywire': Onlookers freak out as 25-year-old set loose on Treasury computer system

[turbinetree]

By Travis Gettys
Published February 4, 2025 9:22 AM ET

A 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has been given full control over the computer code that directs Social Security payments, tax returns and other payments owed to Americans — and sources inside the Treasury Department are freaking out and don't know where to turn for help.

Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Musk companies, has been granted "read-and-write" access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government, three sources told WIRED, giving him the ability to write code on the highly sensitive Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

“You could do anything with these privileges,” said one source with knowledge of the system, adding that there's no conceivable reason to grant Elez the ability to change code for the purposes of rooting out fraudulent payments or analyzing disbursement flow.

https://www.rawstory.com/musk-treasury-doge/

This is not going to end well...................

[Initech]

1. Elon has gone completely mad with power. He must be stopped now.

[underpants]

6. Why do I feel like this is going to end up in a lair inside a volcano

on a secret island?

[Initech]

9. Well, Larry Ellison owns nearly the entire island of Lanai.

Maybe Elon can set up shop there and get a furry cat and an eye patch. He'd be a real life Blofeld.

[Lemons UK]

11. He & Ellison are best buddies. Yeah - this won't end well.

[Initech]

12. Where is James Bond when you need him?

[Hekate]

33. Your intuition is sound, that's why. The billionaires, as such, want bunkers where they can be safe...

…from the likes of us.

Best book I ever read on the subject was Douglas Rushkoff
Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

The blurb from Amazon is below — and it’s all true. Rushkoff was invited to speak to a select group of businessmen, but they misunderstood his worldview and he, well—

Five mysterious billionaires summoned Douglas Rushkoff to a desert resort for a private talk. The subject? How to survive the "Event": the societal collapse they know is coming. Rushkoff argues that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley–style certainty that they and their cohort can escape a disaster of their own making―as long as they have enough money and the right technology.

Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. Through fascinating characters―master programmers who want to remake the world as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced incentivized capitalism will prevent environmental disasters―Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change the world have no interest in doing so. He argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn’t happen by rediscovering community, mutual aid, and human interdependency.

Anticipating the mass layoffs and institutional collapse that have recently rocked Silicon Valley, Rushkoff’s Survival of the Richest is "a necessary and timely read" (Los Angeles Review of Books) with a prophetic message about the future of tech and our human community.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Maybe they're looking for dormant accounts so they can divert the cash flow and abscond with the assets.

[Bluethroughu]

3. Espionage.

[Volaris]

36. Is anyone gonna disagree with the statement:

'If he had tried to pull this stunt at DoD or Langley, someone in that building would have put a bullet in his head...and had the full legal authority to do so under color of National Security.?

[Think. Again.]

4. Who gave him such sensitive passcodes?

[suegeo]

8. That's a good question.

If the treasury sec. himself gave the bambino the password, where did the Treasury Secretary get it? Does the secretary's 2nd in command give out the password?

What is the protocol for providing the password? Is the provider required to first check for security clearance? What level of clearance must one have to access the payment system?

Does it take a security clearance to swipe into the room where the mainframe is? Is it virtual access?

[dchill]

17. ...as if protocols will hold.

[misanthrope]

19. Trump voters

It was easy to predict all of this.

[Qutzupalotl]

5. Holding our country's treasure hostage.

To be negotiated later.

[lpbk2713]

7. That Third Grade teacher who said he plagiarized a book report

and gave him an F is going to pay.

[Irish_Dem]

10. If only the US had a department which enforced the laws.

[Norbert]

44. They do, but only to the people who aren't in the 'club'.

[Irish_Dem]

45. The GOP uses the laws to protect itself and punish and control everyone else.

[LisaM]

13. Marko Elez sounds like a pseudonym for Elon Musk.

Weird.

[AllyCat]

14. Why don't they stop him!! WTH!!

Duct tape and paracord. Lock him on a toilet in the can.

TAKE HIM THE PHUCK OUT!

[Wingus Dingus]

15. That's MY money (and yours) that little fucker's playing god with.

A lifetime of earnings, for many of us. Little fucking douchebag.

[Timeflyer]

22. Hell yes! If he gets away with this level of thuggery without real, enforceable consequences,

we'll know we've lost our country.

[Arazi]

16. They're building a back door

This way Musk and Trump can switch payments on and off remotely.

Bank on it

[Abolishinist]

24. They could tie this in with voter registration rolls

to selectively determine who will or will not get paid.

[Arazi]

27. So many useful and evil ways to leverage that

Blue states refuse to cooperate with ICE? Cut off social security payments to that state’s citizens until the governor capitulates.

School district persists in teaching equality? Cut off their federal funds.

And yes, match voter rolls with federal payouts and extort compliance from Dems.

It’s definitely why Musk went straight to the heart of our govt with his evil little shitbros getting into all the code last weekend

[SWBTATTReg]

31. Stop all federal taxes from going to the Feds on all paychecks, from all disbursements, so the Feds (under tRUMP)

won't get future funds, until spending previously authorized by Congress via their normal processes are restored, and unauthorized entities are disallowed from these payment systems, w/o monitoring. Such a single person in such a sensitive system as payment systems should never had unfettered access, and any person w/ an auditing background will tell you this.

As a matter of fact, I suspect that such access would be illegal.

[Arazi]

34. Agreed but unfortunately it appears our Dems are paralyzed

And I fear that if we the people refuse to pay taxes, our wages will be garnished and heavy fines imposed.

[SWBTATTReg]

35. This is a big f**king mess, isn't it?

And what the ironic thing is? We all know that we do have legitimate expenses that the Fed. govt needs to pay, and muskrat is doing willy nilly on the whole process. Before long, w/ the millions of bills that the govt receives, for rents it owns, beneficiaries that it owes money to, the whole shooting match, is going to be screwed up, the system of checks and balances are going to be messed up by these 'cowboys' who are getting into these systems, w/ literally no checks and balances.

Just wait, something critical is going to happen and it is all going to be on tRUMP for f**king things up. His name is going to be sprinkled all over the mess and he can't run anywhere to hide.

[durablend]

42. I'll also bet

They put some kind of doomsday into it. "If I'm killed the Treasury gets turned into ashes" or something like that.

[NBachers]

18. I have a quick and final solution. That's as far as I'll go with this.

[misanthrope]

20. Because that is usually what it boils down to with authoritarians

and megalomaniacs.

[brakester]

40. Dictators rarely

live to a ripe old age.

That's what I've heard

[3auld6phart]

23. Cant

Blame you. Beast keep. The secret Service at Bay..

[GiqueCee]

21. I would like to think...

... that even the vilest Republican would draw a line at this point, and join with America's defenders, rather than to just stand by and let this evil fuck and his witless minions destroy this country for Putin.

[Farmer-Rick]

25. Well last time pedo Trump was president

He lost my tax records. The IRS had no record of me after the short COVID shut down. I have been paying taxes for 50 years. So save all your paperwork. I ended up having to send the IRS a paper copy by snail mail along with a paper check.

Keep copies of all your Social Security documents and Tax forms. Watch your bank accounts carefully. Don't trust the government to do anything correctly with their computer systems.

I just ordered a new Social Security card. Maybe you should do too, in case they lose you in the system. Then you can prove you are in the system. Confusion and dysfunction are symptoms of a failing empire. And Putin and pedo pal Trump love the destruction and suffering.

[SWBTATTReg]

32. We still have (my SO) one year in taxes we did that nothing ever happened, and they tell us on the IRS site not to

resubmit the stuff. An IRS person who worked for the IRS told us (a friend of ours) to resubmit. I'm still nervous about doing so.

[Tickle]

26. Can he stop over payments?

asking for a friend

[Dem4life1234]

28. And no one tried to stop that scrawny brat?

No one?

I swear to the Lord who made me. Couldn't happen in a nation with bigger collective balls.

[valleyrogue]

29. Impeach and remove Scott Bessent, the idiot who gave Musk the keys.

It's really not hard to fix. Idiot Republicans could stop this.

[Hekate]

30. "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." Unfortunately, there's a lot of wreckage as they go mad.

Also, I believe as Joe Biden does: that the nation itself has a soul.

In this moment, I leave the implications to you.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

37. Does anyone trust these muskrats?

Link to tweet

[yellow dahlia]

41. Thank you for sharing the identities of the creepy hacker punks who have my Social Security #

and my bank account information, (because I use direct deposit for my SS check). Who would have figured I can't trust the exalted federal Treasury any more than I can trust a robber.

Scott Bessent gave these people the keys to the vault, in order to commit this attack.

The Senate voted to confirm Scott Bessent. Some advice and consent?

I am only one of tens of millions in the same situation. Who will be held to account?

I took actions to secure my bank accounts and my credit.

[Grins]

38. Hey, MAGA! I'm guessing this is not what you thought you were voting for.

When you went into that voting booth, did you know you were voting for this? Or did you think it was all about the price of eggs and gas? Or DEI? Or CRT…?

As someone once said, “Elections have consequences.” (Remember him?)

[Grins]

39. An old line my IT peers used to say...

“You can make mistakes, but to REALLY foul things up it takes a computer!”

We were only half joking. Because there was some dark truth in it.

And that’s why you test, and test, and check and have restore options. And not let idiots anywhere near code.

[DSandra]

43. People like Elon Musk prove that the world is a better place without certain people

And those people include psychopaths, narcissists, and machiavellians.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

46. Here is a good list of the muskrats

Link to tweet