Chinese -based engineering management for pentagon cloud systems completed by Microsoft

Microsoft said he would stop using China -based computer engineering teams to work on Pentagon cloud systems and other classified systems after a this week survey has led to national security problems at the highest level compared to a program used by Microsoft since 2016.

A Propublica report published on Tuesday accused Microsoft of having enabled China-based engineers to help with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate railings in order to balance its government market business.

The report drew the attention of the GOP and Trump administration legislators, with the defense secretary Pete Hegseth insisting that foreign engineers from “any country … should never be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems”. He added that the Ministry of Defense “would examine this as soon as possible”.

After HegSeth’s indication that the Pentagon would examine the question, Fox News Digital contacted Microsoft, who replied that he will cease his use of computer engineers based in China providing a sensitive cloud assistance from the Defense Department “and” related services.

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Pete Hegseth responded to Microsoft’s safety problems. (AP photo / Rick Rycroft; Philip Fong / AFP via Getty Images; Omar Havana / Getty Images)

“In response to the concerns raised earlier this week about US supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for US government customers in order to ensure that no China -based engineering team provides technical assistance for the DOD government Cloud and related services,” said Frank Shaw, communications chief at Microsoft.

“We remain determined to provide the most secure services possible to the American government, in particular by working with our national security partners to assess and adjust our security protocols if necessary.”

The Propublica report published earlier this week, which stimulated Microsoft’s action, cited current and old employees and government entrepreneurs who worked on a Cloud Computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016. The program, intended to comply with federal contract regulations, used a “digital escort” chaperon system so that they can work on computer systems agency. DOD directives require people who manage sensitive data be American citizens or permanent residents.

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Flags in the United States and China float in Fairmont Peace Hotel on April 25, 2024 in Shanghai, China. (Wang Gang / VCG via Getty Images)

According to sources that have spoken to Propublica, including some who knew an intimate familiarity with the hiring process for $ 18 per “digital escort” positions, the technology employees being hired to make the supervisor lacked adequate technological expertise to prevent a chinese employee from hacking the system or transforming classified information to the CCP.

Sources have developed that escorts, often former soldiers, have been hired for their security authorizations more than their technical capacities and often lacked skills aimed at assessing the code used by engineers they supervised.

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Microsoft used its escort system to manage sensitive government information that falls below “classified”, said the Propublica report. This includes “data that involves protection of life and financial ruin”. At the Ministry of Defense, data is classified as “level of impact” four and five, which, according to Propublica, includes materials directly supporting military operations.

The inhabitants of China are governed by radical laws obliging government cooperation with data collection efforts.

The Pentagon in Arlington, goes. (Staff / AFP via Getty Images)

Before Microsoft’s announcement on Friday that it will stop its use of engineers based in China for sensitive programs in the Department of Defense, the company defended its “digital escort” program, noting that all staff and entrepreneurs with privileged access must pass the checks of the history approved by the federal government. The company also underlined a response from the Defense Information Systems Agency, which said that “digital escorts” are used “in certain non -classified environments”.

“For certain technical requests, Microsoft is initiating our team of experts in global matters to provide support through authorized American staff, in accordance with the requirements and processes of the United States government,” a company spokesman said on Tuesday. “In these cases, global support staff have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.”

The spokesperson added at a time when Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements described by the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Risk Management and Authorization Program created in 2011 to respond to the risks associated with the passage of servers entirely controlled by the Government to IT based on the Cloud.

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“We establish attenuation layers at the level of the platform with security and surveillance controls to detect and prevent threats.” This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the US government. “

When it was contacted to comment on this story, the Pentagon referred Fox News Digital to HegSeth’s comments on Friday about “watching” the Microsoft program and declaring foreign engineers “should never have access to DOD systems.