Federal Action Removes the IT Security Officials Who Protect Data from Breaches
A Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) were removed from their positions after attempting to prevent what they deemed a dangerous breach of federal systems by DOGE.
…the DOGE workers obtained the access and then placed two of the IT officials who had resisted them on administrative leave and under investigation, the people said,” according to the NYT report. The agency’s CIO and CISO are reportedly under investigation for their “workplace behavior.” When contacted by Ars today, the Interior Department said, “We are working to execute the President’s directive…
This situation appears comparable to investigating security personnel for performing their designated duties. The official response defends the breach by referencing presidential directives as absolute and unassailable, without addressing professional duty, legal frameworks, or constitutional implications regarding insider threats to federal data.
The language used in these communications suggests very obviously concerning implications for institutional checks and balances, given two “Chiefs” were just removed as if subordinates.
Federal Action Disappears a Computer Science Professor
In a separate incident, an Indiana professor of computer science, known for his cryptography work, has seemingly disappeared after government intervention. His university was instructed to rapidly remove all evidence of his employment. The highly unusual and unexplained directives were reported after neighbors witnessed federal agents raiding his residence weeks later.
A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer, Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.
No indictment has been issued, no evidence presented, nor has any crime been alleged. The erasure orders suggest a coordinated, federally imposed disappearance.
Federal Action Disappears Hundreds of People in Massachusetts, Alarming Governor
In a third incident, reported by the Boston Herald and highlighted by the governor of Massachusetts, a student near Boston was apprehended on the street by six masked individuals in plainclothes, forced into an unmarked van, and transported to a prison in Louisiana—explicitly violating a court order requiring her to remain in Massachusetts.
Bay State Gov. Maura Healey says that the administration has not been forthcoming with details or the legal reasoning behind recent high profile arrests in Massachusetts. […] Ozturk is currently housed in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana. She was moved there by federal authorities after a hearing in Boston. The judge in that hearing issued an court order to keep her in Massachusetts following her arrest, but she was already moved out of the state. […] Healey said she also hasn’t heard a response from the federal government regarding their widely publicized apparent arrest of 370 people during a series of statewide sweeps conducted earlier this month. Not only did Trump’s border czar Tom Homan fail to meet her and discuss his plans for a largescale law enforcement operation in her state, his agency hasn’t provided her administration with any real information about who they took, Healey said. […] “I think what’s concerning, first of all, is we don’t know anything about who they actually took. There are numbers offered but we’ve seen no substantiation. What is also true, is they admit they took a number of people as ‘collateral damage,’ and these are people who are working here, paying taxes here, living here, raising kids here, who had no crimes,” Healey said.
It is worth noting that Ozturk was working on child safety issues, pursuing a doctorate in child study and human development.