Microsoft accused of having exposed Pentagon systems to China: “betrayal behavior”

A new Propublica report accused Microsoft of having enabled engineers based in China of helping Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate railing in order to expand its public procurement activity, raising concerns of espionage of national security experts.

The report cited Current and former employees and government entrepreneurs who worked on a Cloud Computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016 would allow the technology giant to sell Cloud services to the government, known as the “Digital Escort” framework.

The security measure, intended to comply with contractual federal regulations, was indeed a program that included a “digital escort” hood for world cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, so that they can work on agency computer systems.

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Directives of the Ministry of Defense require that people who manage sensitive data be American citizens or permanent residents.

According to sources that spoke to Propublica, including some who knew an intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $ 18 per hour position, the digital escort, the technology employees being hired to make the supervision missing from the adequate technological expertise to prevent a Chinese employee thug from hacking the system or transmitting 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.

In China, people are governed by radical laws forcing government cooperation with data collection efforts.

Microsoft’s cloud was infiltrated in 2023 by Chinese pirates, and a report described the security failures that allowed the hackers to penetrate. (Getty Images)

“If Propublica’s report turns out to be true, Microsoft has created a national embarrassment that endangers our soldiers, sailors, aviators and marine. Threats.

“Microsoft or any seller offering China access to Pentagon secrets on betrayal behavior and should be treated as such.”

“It’s like asking the fox to keep the chicken coop and arm the chickens with sticks in case the fox is angry,” added Michael Sobolik, a Hudson Institute Foreign Policy Fellow. “It begging for belief.”

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Microsoft uses its escort system to manage sensitive government information that falls below “classified”, which includes “data that implies the protection of life and financial ruin,” Propublica reported. 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.

A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s “digital escort” model, saying that all staff and entrepreneurs with privileged access must pass checks of the history approved by the federal government.

“For certain technical requests, Microsoft is initiating our team of global experts in terms of support through authorized American staff, in accordance with the requirements and processes of the United States government,” added the spokesperson. “In these cases, global support staff have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.”

A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s “digital escort” model, saying that all staff and entrepreneurs with privileged access must pass checks of the history approved by the federal government. (Kurt “Cyberguy” KTUSSON)

The Public Information Office of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) was initially not aware of the program when Propublica began asking questions about it, but it finally followed to emphasize that “digital escorts” are used “in certain non -classified environments” in the Department of Defense for “Diagnosis and Advanced Problem Resolution of the experts of the material”.

Fox News Digital contacted DISA and DOD but did not immediately receive an answer.

In 2023, Chinese pirates infiltrated Microsoft Cloud servers and stolen data from senior US government officials, including data and emails from the Secretary of Commerce, the American ambassador to China and other people involved in national security works. The pirates were able to access tens of thousands of emails from the Ministry of Defense.

A post-mortem by the Federal Cyber Safety Review Board, which has since been dissolved, has cited Microsoft Security Failures that allowed the pirates to infiltrate the cloud. However, the post-consciousness report included any link to the “digital escort” program, according to Propublica.

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)

Microsoft said that in response to the recent propublica report that he considered “anyone who” having access to sensitive government systems, regardless of their location or role, a potential risk.

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“We establish attenuation layers at the platform level with safety and surveillance controls to detect and prevent threats.

The spokesperson added that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements described by the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Risk Management and Authorization program, which was created in 2011 to respond to the risks associated with the passage of servers entirely controlled by the government, to computer-based IT.

“This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the United States government,” said the spokesperson.

However, if the allegations of Propublica are true, Lucci said that the federal government should stop work with Microsoft.

“If these allegations (Propublica) are credible, the federal government should never count on Microsoft again to protect data that maintains our men and women in uniform security, in particular given the vast record of Microsoft to be compromised by the PCC,” said Lucci on Monday. “Our soldiers cannot operate in security and secrecy if a seller repeatedly and intentionally invites the enemy in the camp.”