Meet Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old advising at the US State Dept

Elon Musk, who is relying on a clique of young engineers with little or no government experience in his overhaul of the US Federal government infrastructure, has installed a 19-year-old high school grad as State Department "senior adviser".

Musk's acolyte Edward Coristine, who goes as "Big Balls" online, now works as a "senior adviser" in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, a data hub that serves as the IT department for America's diplomatic apparatus, according to The Washington Post that first reported on Coristine's new role.

The Post also reported that Coristine, who now has access to sensitive information about the US diplomats and spies, is also a "senior adviser" at Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which handles border security and counterterrorism, as well as the disaster response agency Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The appointment of Coristine — who briefly worked at Musk's brain startup Neuralink and then joined Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — has sparked debates on the country's security, especially after a report in Bloomberg revealed that the teen was sacked from an internship at Path Network, a network monitoring firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers after Coristine allegedly leaked sensitive information to a competitor.

"I can confirm that Edward Coristine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure," a Path Network spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Coristine has said he did "nothing contractually wrong" while at the company.

Post-firing, he reportedly boasted about retaining access to Path's systems, claiming, "I had access to every single machine… but I never exploited it".

DOGE led by billionaire Musk has been commissioned by US President Donald Trump to cut down on government spending.

So far Musk has dispatched DOGE members to scrutinise sensitive personnel and payment information in government computer systems and led a successful campaign to dismantle two agencies — USAID, which serves as America's soft power abroad, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders. On Tuesday, Musk defended DOGE's work as "common sense" and "not draconian or radical."

Coristine is unexpectedly also listed with USAID, which Musk has shuttered, according to The Post.

He is the son of Charles Coristine who in 2011 bought a failing snack company LesserEvil and revived it to $100M glory.

'This is dangerous'

Coristine appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at Northeastern University, according to the WIRED magazine, that reported the teen is also listed in internal OPM records as an "expert" at the Office of Personnel Management or OPM, an independent agency of US government that manages US federal civil service.

Musk and his engineers have appropriate security clearances and are operating in "full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities," a White House official has told Reuters news agency.

Coristine created three tech or computer-related firms that list as a principal place of business a New Canaan, Connecticut home, valued by Zillow at over $2.4 million, a Connecticut registry of businesses shows. One of them, Tesla.Sexy LLC, dedicated to "Professional, Scientific and Technological services," appears to still be in operation.

Web-based platform Github, which allows developers to store, share and collaborate on code, shows an Eduard C as the only "member" of Diamond CDN — one of the now dissolved Connecticut-based companies founded by Coristine.

The same Eduard C, who describes himself as a technologist who is "passionate about improving humanity!" has contributed to Neuralink's code base, according to the platform.

"Coristine established at least five different companies in the last four years, with entities registered in Connecticut, Delaware, and the United Kingdom, most of which were not listed on his now-deleted LinkedIn profile…. Someone using a Telegram handle tied to Coristine also solicited a cyberattack-for-hire service later that year," the WIRED reported.

It said Tesla.Sexy LLC controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russia-registered domains, adding one of those domains offers a service called Helfie, which is an AI bot for Discord servers targeting the Russian market.

Experts say Coristine's online activities might not disqualify him for basic clearances but would complicate higher-level access. They also argue his youth and inexperience — coupled with Musk's loyalty-driven hiring — could jeopardise national security.

"This is dangerous," a US official told the Washington Post, noting Coristine's age and the 2022 leak at Path Network.

Former FBI agent EJ Hilbert told WIRED: "If I was doing the background investigation on him, I would probably have recommended against hiring him for the work he's doing. I'm not opposed to the idea of cleaning up the government. But I am questioning the people that are doing it."

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are, meanwhile, demanding answers after they say Trump gave his most powerful aide Musk and his staff unprecedented access to sensitive data and classified secrets.

In a letter to Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, the lawmakers have asked what security precautions had been taken to prevent unauthorised leaks of information by staff at the DOGE.

They are seeking answers over whether Musk's team has met with US intelligence officials to discuss how to reduce the chances of the data being misused and what steps to take to protect classified information, such as the identities of CIA informants or the actions of overseas intelligence operatives.

"Such information would be highly valuable to the spy agencies of Russia, China, Iran and other nations, and its loss could put lives at risk while undermining efforts to prevent terrorism and other threats to the US," the senators wrote.