A federal labor agency has found itself at the center of a cybersecurity controversy after a whistleblower alleged DOGE workers set off a major data breach.

The allegations, shared with Congress and made public by Whistleblower Aid, indicate unauthorized access and possible data exfiltration from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

What Happened: Daniel Berulis, an IT staffer at the NLRB, said in an affidavit that the DOGE Service team was given wide-ranging access to internal systems.

He reported unusual activity beginning in March, such as tampered logging protocols and the removal of roughly 10 gigabytes of sensitive data. NPR reported that the files seemingly included private affidavits, union-related information, and proprietary business documents.

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Why It Matters: The NLRB deals with confidential labor complaints and union organizing data. Breaches like these could jeopardize investigations and expose sensitive corporate and worker information. Berulis also made note of attempted logins from a Russian IP address using valid credentials, raising further red flags about security conditions.

Berulis said efforts to report the incident to federal cybersecurity authorities were resisted by agency leadership, and that he had received a threatening message at his home.

Following the disclosure, NPR reported that DOGE allocated two staffers to work part-time at the NLRB.

DOGE has been previously linked with privacy and security concerns across other federal agencies, such as its attempts to access data from the Social Security Administration, taxpayer data, and its reported tracking of employee communications using AI tools.

These latest developments have coincided with news that Elon Musk has reportedly slashed DOGE's projected federal budget savings target from $1 trillion to $150 billion for 2026, making this the second revision amid increasing scrutiny over inflated savings claims and economic risks.

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