The head of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services — Thomas Shedd, a longtime Tesla alum — has been requesting administrative access to all components of the system without a clear reason for needing that access, according to an internal message from the GSA engineer viewed by Nextgov/FCW. The news was first reported by 404 Media.
Shedd “would be able to view all personally identifiable information (PII) moving through the Notify system, including phone numbers and variable data for members of the public,” the employee — who appears to have worked at the agency for the past decade — wrote.
The system includes information like the email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses of those the government is contacting, according to its privacy impact assessment, which notes that “minimizing access” is part of the system’s security. Shedd currently doesn’t have access to the system, according to Will Powell, GSA’s acting press secretary.
With the access he’s requesting, the Tesla alum would both “be able to download and store this data without anybody else receiving a notification” and “be able to fully manage the access of others, including granting the same access to others or removing it from existing team members,” the employee who quit wrote.
“Granting the same access would, of course, grant the same ability to view and download PII,” they noted.
The GSA engineer wrote that Shedd hadn’t given a justification for the ask, and that “while we have suggested alternatives, such as read-only access, Thomas has continued to req ..
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