A group of 20-somethings with names like "Big Balls" gain unauthorized access to your servers, delete data, take your website down, and now you can't serve your customers and your organization goes belly up unless you pay money to a mafia boss.

Sounds a lot like ransomware, doesn't it? When your government starts imitating ransomware playbooks, it's a four-alarm fire. At least in theory one can negotiate with ransomware actors.

Here's another way the DOGE team is behaving like ransomware actors: Their strategy for taking over agency databases is to wait until the federal employees go home on Friday and then show up and work through the weekend to undermine federal security.

@briankrebs Succession. That's what I'm stuck on in this. Given the security risks this access will leave in its wake, it's simply not possible for Elon Musk to credibly pass control to another party voluntarily. He's created a situation in which, soon or late, *any*:successor will need to remove him by force.

It's possible he hasn't thought that one through, but to quote the man himself, "I don't care."