WIRED: DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse

[SpankMe]

18. No doubt they'll include hard-to-detect back doors so it can be monitored and controlled from the outside

Some have been advocating for years to transition from the old COBOL code to something new and modern. But, proper software development for something like this takes years and a team of coders, reviewers, tests and such. Musk may be able to create something that would work at a superficial level. But 19 year old script kiddies don't have the experiential depth to delve into the history of the COBOL code, updates to account for new laws and conditions, etc. They're so young and inexperienced, they can't empathize with the customer base (elderly and disabled) and treat it with the sanctity it deserves. To them, it's just another database - if a few tens of thousands fall through the cracks, that's just the cost of doing business.

Developing rocket controlling software is a cakewalk compared to a system that handles and controls life-critical income disbursements for a vulnerable segment of our society.

Also, this clearly violates procurement rules. Normally, the government would develop a work statement and put this effort out for bids so that expert software developers could bid on it. This isn't something that should be done in-house and at-will.