Chinese nationals will no longer be allowed to manage Pentagon cloud services

Date:
Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:07:04 +0000

Description:
The US Defense department will now review who is managing its cloud services.

FULL STORY ======================================================================US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calls for investigation into Microsoft's 'digital escort' system The system saw Chinese nationals coding for DoD software vendors Reports called this scheme 'inherently risky'

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of the involvement of Chinese nationals in managing cloud services for the Pentagon and wider US military.

For nearly a decade, Microsoft has used Chinese coders, remotely supervised
by US contractors to support sensitive Department of Defense cloud systems - and if youre thinking America First and common sense, this doesnt pass either of those tests," Hesgeth said.

The declaration comes after a ProPublica report claimed Microsofts use of Chinese engineers to maintain Department of Defense computer systems with minimal supervision by US personnel was inherently risky - but Microsoft has said it will soon stop using these China based-engineers for US military tech support. Digital escorts

These workers were supervised by digital escorts - who were found to be
mainly low-skilled and low-paid workers with very little coding experience.

One such escort told ProPublica ; were trusting that what theyre doing isnt malicious, but we really cant tell.

The use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments, its over, Hegseth went on. Were requiring a third-party audit
of Microsofts digital escort program, including the code and the submissions by Chinese nationals.

Not only that, but Hegseth will also require the Department of Defense to carry out a separate investigation of the digital escort program and the Chinese Microsoft employees involved.

The program was designed to comply with contracting rules, but it exposed the department to unacceptable risk, he argued.

These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we dont know about? Were going to find out.

Going forward, all software vendors for the DoD will also have to identify
and terminate any Chinese involvement in DoD systems.

It blows my mind that Im even saying these things, that we allowed it to happen - thats why were attacking it so hard, Hegseth said. You might also like Take a look at our picks for the best AI tools around Check out our choice for best antivirus software Microsoft restricts access to its cyber early warning systems for some Chinese firms



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/chinese-nationals-will-no-longer-be-allowed-to-m anage-pentagon-cloud-services


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