this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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Summary

Federal employees have filed a class action lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to disconnect a server allegedly installed illegally at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by associates of Elon Musk.

The lawsuit claims the server, connected without required privacy assessments, risks exposing government employees’ data.

The server is linked to the Trump administration’s plan to downsize the federal workforce.

If the motion is granted, the administration's "deferred resignation program" could be delayed.

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[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 11 points 13 hours ago

Just pour some fucking RC Cola or Mt dew on the damned thing. Either one would be fine, RC for sticky Dew for eating away at everything.

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 82 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Sue?! JUST FUCKING DO IT jesusfuckingchrist we are way beyond the point of asking.

[–] dwemthy@lemmy.world 31 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Just aks the server directly. Aks it right in the power cord and then aks the hard drive. Aks it over and over

[–] JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I cant tell if your saying it as 'ask' or 'axe'

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 3 points 13 hours ago

One way is a double entendre so...

[–] capital_sniff@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I heard the DOGE crew threatened to call the US Marshals if they weren't given access.

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago

Make them do it. The US Marshals should have resisted also, as DOGE is illegal.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 66 points 21 hours ago

Republicans do something blatantly illegal

"Surely this time the law will do something about it. Let's do nothing and wait for the courts to take care of this in a timely manner."

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 24 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

If he really did this that shit will be hacked so fast lol that's not going to look good

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago

It was already “hacked”, in the sense that it allowed anyone to bypass the government employees’ spam filters. All you have to do is spoof the sending address (which is laughably easy) and you can @everyone straight to 15000 federal employees’ inboxes.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Do you think he cares if he looks good?

We're way past shit like that mattering. It's a straight up fascist power grab. He's openly saying to ignore all laws and do whatever they want.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 47 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not advising a federal worker bring a sledgehammer to work. It might fall and break a server.

[–] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 12 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

And definitely don't accidentally spill water on it, that would be a big oopsie

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Ah yes, be sure to be very careful with your hot cup of iron filings around that server.

[–] NooBoY@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

It was a bit of percussive maintenance, I swear.

[–] earphone843@sh.itjust.works 127 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is going to make the past OPM hack look minor in comparison.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hell, the massive communications hack the US faced from China few months back looks like childs play compared to this.

[–] moncharleskey@lemmy.zip 35 points 22 hours ago

You mean the one that the DoJ was investigating until Trump came in and squashed it?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 28 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Suing requires laws. And we're in lawless territory right now.

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago

Right? Like I'm getting raped so I'm going to politely ask the rapist to please stop or ill call the police. What the ever loving fuck.

[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 38 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Fucking just pour goddamn water on it or shortcircuit the goddamn thing

[–] HonorableScythe@lemm.ee 2 points 14 hours ago

Honestly, the way some servers are, a swift kick or a drop off the shelf will do the job!

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Yo bro just unplug that shit wtf?

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

You think they haven't tried that? If it was that simple it wouldn't have gotten plugged in in the first place.

It's monitored. You need to stop Musk and his lap dogs, who are backed by the DOJ and POTUS himself.

Everyone that's put up resistance has been walked out of the building and put on leave/fired.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If you're going to get fired anyway, you might as well throw it off the roof. A bit more effective of a delay than the 30 seconds it would take for someone to plug the power cable back in.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What stops them from putting in a new server just a day later

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 16 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Nothing. Destroying it just wastes more of their time comparatively.

And it probably destroys Elmo's precious data as a bonus. Something this ~~haphazard~~ efficiently installed wouldn't have a well-tested backup procedure, let alone a backup policy to begin with.

[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Do PSUs in the USA have voltage switches? Just flick it on every server they install

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Not usually. Could rip off the onboard speaker and snip off all the fan headers though, that'll take a while to figure out.

Edit; or a syringe of liquid metal sprayed in all over the board through a vent. Not hard to sabotage a computer physically tbh

[–] x4740N@lemm.ee 1 points 12 hours ago
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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 15 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

See if they can walk 100 of them out at the same time.

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 6 points 15 hours ago

That's exactly what they're aiming to do.

The one thing that usually prevents this is the need to prevent government dysfunction and the collapse of whole institutions, and neither Trump nor Musk give a fuck. It works in their favor and their supporters are happy to justify it.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 16 points 20 hours ago

Pretty much. At some point stuff like this relies on everyone accepting it. The man in the high castle is a pretty good example of it actually. John didn't grow up a nazi, doesn't genuinely believe in it, but goes along with it so he can continue to provide for his family.

In the end what difference does it make it you are just going along with it or if you believe it?

[–] Crikeste@lemm.ee 8 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Damn, if only we had the 2nd amendment.

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[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

What makes you think anyone that would be willing to do that has physical access? I don't have access to the server room at the office I work in, and we don't even keep any really important data there. It's mostly just networking equipment. Anything really sensitive is kept on cloud-based resources that are housed at an off-site facility that is only physically accessible by the company that owns and runs it.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

A sledgehammer can fix most problems

[–] roofTophopper@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I rather it be someone's face rather than a useful server

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 1 points 11 hours ago

Caving elons face in with a sledgehammer does have a certain appeal yes

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[–] Proudly_Banned_From_Reddit@feddit.uk 69 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know he called it the Department Of Government Efficiency for the acronym, but God damnit how nazi-ish does it sound anyway?

[–] Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Someone on Reddit suggested the origin for Musk is this. Which is a much more sinister intention.

[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Let's be real, musk is an absolute asshole but he's not cultured or informed enough to do that

[–] jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, in this case it was a woman posting a picture of her shiba inu that lead to the downfall if the US government.

[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

As well as the violent death of harambe

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 13 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

They probably already have offsite backups of all kinds of shit. I know it needs to be shut down anyway, but damage is done.

[–] AngryRobot@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

What are the odds it's a backdoor into the system for a foreign power?

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 8 points 23 hours ago

I suppose that’s better than nothing, but our legal system looks quite like Swiss cheese these days. These lawsuits can go away on a whim.

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