The United States Social Security Administration’s website has crashed repeatedly in recent weeks after the SSA installed a fraud check upgrade mandated by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting agency, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing current and former administration officials with knowledge of the matter.
Officials told the newspaper that crashes usually lasted for anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours. Even when the website was back online, many users had trouble accessing their accounts or logged in only to find their information missing.
Crashes appear to be caused by the expansion of a contract between the Trump administration and a credit-reporting agency that tracks names, addresses and other personal information to verify users’ identities, the newspaper reported. The expanded checks are now being conducted earlier and in relation to a larger number of consumers, leading to an increased load on servers.
