Pentagon Probes Microsoft's Use of Chinese Coders

Defense Department Suspends, Reviews Microsoft 'Digital Escorts' Program Chris Riotta (@chrisriotta) • August 29, 2025

The U.S. Department of Defense is reviewing Microsoft's use of Chinese nationals to write code for military cloud infrastructure following reports that the tech firm used inexperienced U.S. citizens to putatively oversee foreign coders.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the Pentagon became aware of Microsoft's foreign coder program in July and took steps to dismantle the nearly decade-long arrangement. Under the program, Microsoft used a global workforce - including employees in China - by having cleared personnel in the United States called "digital escorts" to review foreign coders' work.

A July exposé by ProPublica found that some digital escorts had little coding experience and that Pentagon officials were not familiar with the practice.

Hegseth described the ...