Cyber

GAO audits of DOGE’s ‘digital footprint’ in IT systems underway

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told Senate lawmakers that the watchdog is examining what the group has done with data in Treasury, Social Security and OPM networks.

By Matt Bracken

April 29, 2025

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Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, center, testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch subcommittee, while Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel, left, and Government Publishing Office Director Hugh Halpern, right, look on. The hearing was held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on April 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Government Accountability Office auditors are examining the “digital footprint” left by DOGE in Treasury Department, Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management IT systems, the watchdog’s leader told Congress on Tuesday.

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said GAO auditors are looking into what data was accessed by the Elon Musk underlings during their forays into agency IT systems, and determining if any changes were made.

“We’re looking at the digital footprint within each of these major systems across government,” Dodaro said, naming OPM, SSA and Treasury specifically. “So we’ll have a better idea about what impact DOGE’s access has had on the data systems, and whether there’s been any information input into the system or taken out of the system.”

The infiltration of government IT systems by unvetted Musk associates under the auspices of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse has appalled many cybersecurity experts, some of whom likened the actions to an ongoing data breach.

Many of those IT intrusions have sparked litigation, including over DOGE’s work in Treasury, SSA and OPM networks. Democratic lawmakers have also pressed the GAO and inspectors general to probe the incidents.

Dodaro said Tuesday that the GAO spends “a lot of time” on data reliability before embarking on assessments of this kind. To make sure the information GAO gets from agencies is authentic and accurate, Dodaro said watchdog staffers look at what checks have been put in place to validate the data, while conducting their own testing to suss out any “anomalies” in the data.

Though he couldn’t put a timeline on when the GAO might begin delivering its assessments on DOGE’s data work, Dodaro said the watchdog plans to publish reports as soon as they’re available for each agency, rather than waiting until all work is completed.

While DOGE gave the GAO a bit of a cold shoulder during the first month of the Trump administration, the tech collective has increasingly sought out the watchdog in recent weeks for details about its cost-savings recommendations.

Dodaro said Tuesday that DOGE has “used some of our reports and have said that they are working to implement some of our open recommendations” — recommendations that, if adopted, could save up to $208 billion, the GAO has said.

Another “positive” development has come recently from the Musk-led group, he added.

“They’ve opened up some data barriers that had been preventing the federal government from detecting improper payments and fraud,” Dodaro said. “So there’s some benefits. I don’t want to imply that … there’s just concerns.”

The GAO hasn’t yet received any congressional requests to look into DOGE’s cost-savings claims, but Dodaro said he expects those asks will come in time.

“We’re tracking it in terms of how they’re using our open recommendations, so that we can show the results of our work and the impact our work has,” he said. “If what they’re doing [goes] beyond implementing our recommendations, we’d have to look at [that] and validate.”