Nearly every computer system draws a line between the right to look at files and the right to change them — but till now, the details barely mattered to most non-programmers. The big picture: The early days of Trump's second administration — as Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crew execute a hostile takeover of the federal government's digital infrastructure — are giving Washington a crash course in the importance

Democratic lawmakers overseeing the Treasury Department called for a probe into how Elon Musk and his aides gained access to the agency's payments system.