Microsoft said that it no longer allows its China-based engineers to work on U.S. Department of Defense computer systems after a ProPublica investigation revealed the practice. According to Tech Crunch, Redmond’s previous system relied on digital escorts — American employees with proper security clearances — to monitor the foreign engineers working on the systems. However, it’s been noted that some of these U.S. citizens weren’t knowledgeable enough to determine if the person they were monitoring was doing regular work or putting in a backdoor.
“We’re trusting that what they’re doing isn’t malicious, but we really can’t tell,” one digital escort told ProPublica. Microsoft claims that it has disclosed this practice to the Federal government, but neither past nor present authorities were aware of the practice. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded on the news with a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Foreign engineers — from any country, including of course China — should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems.”
