A critical security breach in the newly installed email system of the Office of Personnel Management resulted in spams and inappropriate messages flooding the accounts of thousands of federal employees, thereby raising questions about the cybersecurity protocols of that agency.
The vulnerability, owing to a rapidly developed system, allowed anyone with an email address to send mass messages to people working for the government. Conclusively, some 13,000 employees working at the NOAA received unsolicited emails that include crude jokes, political jabs, and newsletters from organizations, such as the Church of Scientology and The Perfect Jean. Vulgar content featured in some, while others used ridicule to bash the administration with a fake weather alert predicting “fecal showers” for the next four years. The one happened under the shadow of billionaire Elon Musk who had recently reshaped OPM. According to reports, Musk had extracted much power in the agency leadership replacing seasoned experienced officials with people from his previous businesses. Among these was a 21-year-old former employee of Peter Thiel, a recent high school graduate who had interned for a few months at Neuralink, and Amanda Scales, former AI HR staffer who is OPM’s chief of staff.
Scales apparently has been under a strong change effort, removing even Chief Information Officer Melvin Brown II. The latter refused to install a new email program on the system for fear it might compromise data security. In that regard, his fears are confirmed because such a system suffered mass spamming and even invoked a class action suit for the lack of fulfillment of federal security standards.
Beyond the immediate chaos, the compromised server has also reportedly exposed sensitive communications related to Project 2025, the controversial initiative to reshape the federal workforce. With the new administration under scrutiny for its handling of government agencies, this breach underscores growing concerns about competence, security, and political influence over essential government infrastructure.