Washington DC - Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been given access to sensitive federal data, even as it crashed critical digital infrastructure at the Social Security Administration.

On Monday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed an injunction blocking Elon Musk's DOGE from accessing the private data of US citizens at the Departments of Education and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management.

Maryland District Judge Deborah Boardman's injunction was put on hold in a 2-1 vote ahead of an appeal on May 5, which will put claims that DOGE is violating privacy laws to the test.

In the meanwhile, DOGE will be granted access to the personal information of millions of US citizens as it continues its campaign of cuts across the civil service.

Kanye West Kanye West targets Taylor Swift in latest social media rant

Many that the move will allow the Trump administration to use sensitive personal data from certain departments for unrelated purposes, or may leave a hole through which hackers could gain access to the information.

"Permitting DOGE unfettered access to the plaintiffs' personally identifiable information lets the proverbial genie out of the bottle" wrote Judge Nicole Berner, who also sits on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Even if they ultimately prevail, the plaintiffs will already have suffered irreparable harm."

As the court was making its decision Monday, the Washington Post reported that Elon Musk's staff had managed to crash the Social Security Administration website while trying to install a new "anti-fraud" update.

DOGE's tech staff had reportedly not tested the new features before they installed them, leading to critical services going offline for multiple hours.

Daily outages have now become the norm for the SSA after Musk fired more than 7,000 people and cut a huge amount of the agency's services, including a phone service vital for people who do not have easy internet access.