The following A Pro Publica report Microsoft is using Chinese engineers to help maintain the U.S. Department of Defense’s cloud computing system, and the company said it has made changes to ensure this will not happen again.
It is reported that the existing system relies on “digital escorts” to supervise Chinese engineers. But according to Pro Publica, these escorts (U.S. citizens with security licenses) sometimes lack the technical expertise of proper monitoring engineers.
In response to the report, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Written on X“Foreign engineers – of course any country, including China – should never allow maintenance or access to the Ministry of Defense systems.”
On Friday, Microsoft Chief Communications Officer Frank X. Shaw answered: “In response to concerns earlier this week about the U.S. overseeing foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for U.S. government customers to ensure there is no Chinese engineering team providing technical assistance to the Department of Defense government cloud and related services.”
