US Department of Defence to initiate ‘two-week review’ after Microsoft says no to ‘China-based’ teams for DoD tech support

WASHINGTONDC: The US Department of Defence (DoD) will be conducting a two-week review of its digital infrastructure after Microsoft announced it would no longer use “China-based  engineering teams” to provide technical support for DoD cloud services.

The decision follows an investigative report alleging that Microsoft had been relying on engineers in China to help maintain the Department of Defence’s computer systems.

The investigative report, published by ProPublica, revealed that the tech giant had been using Chinese engineers to help maintain the Department’s computer systems with minimal oversight from American personnel, potentially exposing some of the nation’s most sensitive data to cyberattacks from one of its primary adversaries.

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, in a video statement on Friday (local time), announced the review after Microsoft’s Chief Communications Officer, Frank Shaw, confirmed the tech company’s decision to halt the use of China-based engineers for DoD’s technical support.

Shaw, in a statement on X, further reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to providing secure services and working with national security partners to strengthen protocols.

“In response to concerns raised earlier this week about US-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services. We remain committed to providing the most secure services possible to the US government, including working with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols as needed,” the Chief Communications Officer stated.

Following this, Hegseth, in the video statement, revealed that the DoD was alerted to a potential security issue earlier this week, referring to the report by ProPublica and also to a letter sent by the Republican Senator Tom Cotton on the report, which stemmed from the use of China-based engineers by tech companies to support DoD cloud services.

Hegseth claimed that the digital infrastructure was a “legacy system’ which was created during the Obama administration.

“Earlier this week, we were alerted to a potential vulnerability in our DoD computer systems, and we’ve been checking into it ever since. It turns out that some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labour to assist with DoD cloud services. This is obviously unacceptable, especially in today’s digital threat environment. Now, this was a legacy system created over a decade ago during the Obama administration,” Hegseth said.

“But we have to ensure the digital systems that we use here at the Defence Department are ironclad and impenetrable. And that’s why today I’m announcing that China will no longer have any involvement whatsoever in our cloud services, effective immediately. And at my direction, the Department will also initiate, as fast as we can, a two-week review or faster to make sure that what we uncovered isn’t happening anywhere else across the DOD. We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to our military infrastructure and online networks. And I want to thank all those Americans out there in the media and elsewhere who raised this issue to our attention so we could address it. And that’s why we’re talking to you today. As the president would say, thank you for your attention to this matter, and God bless our war fighters. I’m going to sign that memo right now, initiating that review,” the US Secretary of Defence added. (ANI)