Microsoft has been caught lying about using Chinese engineers to support highly sensitive cloud systems used by the Department of Defense.
Here’s the news via ProPublica:
BREAKING: New @ProPublica investigation by @Renee_Dudley and Doris Burke reveals @Microsoft omitted from its Pentagon security plan that China-based engineers were maintaining highly sensitive U.S. Defense Department cloud systems.
Big omission. pic.twitter.com/60sCLeM6ru
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
Microsoft's 125-page security plan mentions "escorted access" with oversight from a cleared "digital escort" but forgets to tell the Pentagon these "non-screened personnel" include engineers in China.
The company hid who was touching America's most sensitive military data. pic.twitter.com/u6Rcdo7Yii
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
Here's the lowdown on Microsoft's bizarre "digital escorts" system: Former U.S. military personnel with security clearances but little technical knowledge babysit Chinese engineers who actually know how the systems work.
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
Even worse, the Pentagon's "independent" security assessment was done by Kratos, a company paid by Microsoft to evaluate Microsoft. As one former Microsoft employee put it to @propublica: "You're paying for the outcome you want." Open regulatory capture. pic.twitter.com/IHGpmvFAQs
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
Defense Secretary @PeteHegseth expressed "shock and outrage" when he learned about this. The Pentagon's own chief didn't know engineers in China were maintaining @DefenseDod systems because Microsoft's disclosure was so deliberately vague it meant nothing.
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
China's laws give Beijing sweeping authority to demand data from any person in China. Microsoft knew this. Yet somehow Chinese engineers got keys to America's digital military know-how.
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025
Microsoft claims it has since stopped using China-based engineers, but only after getting caught.
Yet it runs all kinds of other contracts with federal bodies. How many other contracts are hiding similar arrangements?
— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) August 20, 2025