Federation’s trial trials claim security, privacy risks in new OPS -Communication System

On January 29, 2025By Littum

Federal employees have brought a case against the Trump administration’s Personnel Administration’s Office after the Agency created and began testing an E email system to provide mass communication directly to federal employees’ inbox.

The lawsuit From two anonymous federal employees of the Executive Branch claims that OPM violated the e-Government Act of 2002 by not releasing details of how the communication system will control federal employees’ personal information stored in the system.

Kel McClanahan, CEO of the National Security Advisor Law Firm, filed the Pro Bono Law on behalf of the applicants who claim that the E -mail system pose a security risks for federal employees’ personal information.

“A one-stop shop for information about any government employee in the federal executive branch is just a treasure trove for hackers or even just curiosity seekers,” McClanahan said in an interview.

The e-Government ACT from 2002 requires agencies to implement an “assessment of privacy influence” for any new online federal system by analyzing how personally identifiable information will be collected, saved, protected, shared and controlled in this system. Agencies are obliged to publish the assessment unless it will raise concern for national security or reveal classified information.

“People have the right to know where their information is stored by the government and how well it is protected,” said McClanahan.

OPTER first announced the test of his new mass communication system last week. In the following days, some federal employees said they received testing -e emails from OM, asking them to answer “yes” to confirm if they received the message.

“OPTS TEST A new capacity that allows it to send important communication to all civilian federal employees from a single E -mail address,” the agency wrote in a January 23. “Testing this message system functionality is expected as soon as this week.”

The purpose of OPK’s mass communication system is unclear, but federal staff in the trial pointed to the possibility of OPS using the method of communication to submit reductions in force (RIFs). OPTERED refused to comment on both the trial and the intentions of the new mass communication system.

Regardless of the purpose of the message system, McClanahan said that data security for federal employees’ personal information is the central point of the complaint on January 27.

“We have no idea what this system is. We have no idea what the nature of the system is. All we know is that in OPK’s own language it is a new distribution and response system, ”McClanahan said. “If they want to create a new system to do something that will collect all this information, they have to make sure it is safe and they have to make sure people know it’s safe – but They haven’t done any of it. “

Several federal agencies have also reportedly sent messages to their employees for OM’s communication system, according to the trial. For example, the lawsuit says that on January 23, e -mailed the acting secretary of the Institute of Homeland Security employees to make them aware of the OM -E -mail tests and that E -emails “can be considered confidence.”

However, the lawsuit claims that communication is not sent safely because of how quickly Om started sending the messages out.

“Safe communication takes time and coordination to plan and implement,” the trial states. “Standard -e email is not encrypted, and it is common practice among hackers – including hackers associated with hostile foreign services – to start trying to access a new US government unit as soon as they learn about its implementation.”

The plaintiffs also pointed to the OPM data violation in 2015, which set personal data in approx. 22 million current and former federal employees at risk.

The lawsuit also refers to a recent Reddit post from an account that claims to be a long-term career federal employee at OM. The employee stated that the former OPK CIO MELVIN BROWN “was pushed aside just one week into his tenure because he refused to configure E email lists to send direct communication to all career officials.”

The Reddit poster also stated that agencies are corrected to send lists of federal employees to the OM staff manager Amanda Scales, a former Xai employee owned by billionaire Elon Musk. Musk is also the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, who faces its own series of legal action.

In January 27, complaints of Om try to file the trial as a trial. They call for OPS to immediately implement an assessment of privacy for the new communication system.