Elon Musk's DOGE-themed site serves as a humorous take on cybersecurity concerns
The website associated with Elon Musk's so-called cost-cutting committee, DOGE, has stirred concerns due to its apparent vulnerabilities. Running without the oversight of a federal agency, it operates mainly through Musk's social network, X, and its recently launched counterpart, doge.gov.
According to reports, doge.gov was hastily set up following Musk's declaration, and its contents are essentially duplicates of the X posts. Insiders claim that the website is far from secure, with a database that can be edited by anyone. In fact, two unnamed web development experts, investigating the site's insecurities, reportedly were able to leave their mark on the site.
One of these experts, speaking to "404 Media," described the site as "completely cobbled together," with "tons of errors and vulnerabilities" in the source code. Rather than being hosted on government servers, the site utilizes Cloudflare's Pages, a service that supports custom domains. This setup is a far cry from the robust security measures typically employed by government websites.
The situation became all too real when one of the sources, pretending to be harmless, left messages on the site, reading "This is a joke of a gov.site" and "THESE 'EXPERTS' HAVE LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN - roro." Although these entries were later removed, they remain accessible in an "404 Media" archive.
Government websites are expected to be secure and reliable, providing a platform of trust for citizens. However, the case of the DOGE website raises concerns about its lack of security and potential vulnerabilities to hackers. The website's structure, design, and lack of proper security measures have drawn criticism, with many echoing the sentiment that it feels "completely cobbled together."
The Commission, which assists the European Parliament in its regulatory tasks, has expressed interest in the security issues surrounding Musk's cost-cutting committee's website. On GitHub, a prominent developer has started a project to investigate the website's vulnerabilities, aiming to enhance its security and adherence to federal standards. Despite the controversies, dogecoin enthusiasts continue to create and share memes about 'musk' and 'doge' on various social media platforms, including X and the corresponding GitHub repository.
