DOGE team gain accounts on classified systems with nuclear secrets

Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, and Adam Ramada, a Miami-based venture capitalist, have had accounts on the computer systems for at least two weeks, according to the sources who also have access to the networks. Prior to their work at DOGE, neither Farritor nor Ramada appear to have had experience with either nuclear weapons or handling classified information.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy flatly denied that Farritor and Ramada had accessed the networks.

In February, CNN reported that DOGE employees, including Farritor, were seeking access to the secretive computer systems. At the time, Energy Secretary Chris Wright denied that they would be allowed on the networks.

“I’ve heard these rumors, ‘They’re like seeing our nuclear secrets.’ None of that is true at all; they don’t have security clearances,” Wright told CNBC.

Nuclear networks

The sources say that the networks in question are used by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the nation’s vast nuclear stockpile, and the Department of Defense.

The first network, known as the NNSA Enterprise Secure Network, is used to transmit detailed “restricted data” about America’s nuclear weapons designs and the special nuclear materials used in the weapons, among other things. The network is used to transfer this extremely sensitive technical information between the NNSA, the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories and the production facilities that store, maintain and upgrade the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The second network, known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), is used by the Department of Defense to communicate with the Department of Energy about nuclear weapons. SIPRNet is also used more broadly for sharing information classified at the secret level, information that “could potentially damage or harm national security if it were to get out,” explained a former career civil servant at the Department of Defense who requested anonymity to discuss classified systems.

Access to both networks would normally require a “Q” clearance, the highest level of security clearance at the Department of Energy. Obtaining a Q clearance is a lengthy process, but can be expedited in certain cases.

They described the access as a “toehold” that would allow DOGE staffers to request information classified at the secret level. “They’re getting a little further in, it’s something to make note of,” they concluded. “It could lead to something bigger.”

DOGE employees might need access to classified information in order to discuss program details and future budget priorities, says Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks America’s nuclear program.

Although large portions of the nuclear weapons budget are ultimately unclassified, a lot of classified details likely go into setting those numbers. “I don’t think any of that would be open,” he says.

NNSA has already felt the effects of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the government. In February, hundreds of workers were fired from the nuclear agency at the direction of DOGE. The decision was quickly reversed however, and ultimately fewer than 50 employees were dismissed, according to the agency.

News of the accounts comes amid growing concern about DOGE’s handling of data elsewhere in the government.

It also comes during a controversy over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s use of the publicly available encrypted messaging app Signal to send sensitive details of a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hegseth’s use of the app became public after the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included on one chat. Last week, the New York Times reported about a second chat that included Hegseth’s wife, brother and personal lawyer.