WASHINGTON, D.C. – After discovering a massive security breach, the Pentagon is taking stronger measures to lock down its most critical networks. This stems from a bombshell report last month, revealing Chinese coders may have had long-term access to sensitive DOD cloud systems through a contract with Microsoft.
Now, the Pentagon is tightening oversight and demanding accountability from the tech giant while also closing a loophole that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calls an unacceptable risk to national security.
“The use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments, it’s over,” Secretary Hegseth said in a recent video address on the issue.
* Shock Report: China May Have Had Access to Sensitive US Military Systems Since Obama Admin
He announced that the Pentagon issued a formal letter of concern to Microsoft, and that he’s ordered a third-party audit of the “digital escort” program, which is what allowed engineers based in China to write code for under-trained U.S. supervisors to enter into DOD networks.
“I’m also tasking the Department of Defense experts with a separate investigation of the digital escort program and the Chinese Microsoft employees that were involved in it. These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out,” Hegseth said.
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While Microsoft maintains that Defense officials knew about the program, a ProPublica report found no reference to China-based operations in the company’s security filings. While alarming, experts say the blame doesn’t fall solely on Microsoft.
“This latest revelation highlights a variety of different failures, both on the part of Microsoft and on the part of the federal government…the Department of Defense failed at multiple points to ask tough questions of Microsoft about what its programs entailed,” said Jack Burnham, a research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
He warns that this all comes as China has stepped up cyber-attacks against the U.S.
“Just a few months ago, Microsoft’s SharePoint file system was allegedly infiltrated by Chinese hackers that had breaches at both DHS and other departments. China, writ large, has certainly expanded its campaign of cyber espionage and sabotage within the United States targeting critical infrastructure, water systems, electrical grids,” Burnham told CBN News.
For now, Hegseth says the Pentagon is reviewing each Defense software vendor to ensure Chinese nationals are removed from the supply chain.
“I’m committed, like the president is, to ensuring that our national security networks are secure,” said Hegseth.
Burnham says big-tech companies wanting to do business with the government should expect higher security standards, and a real understanding of the risks that come with relying on China in cyberspace.
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