Pentagon ends Microsoft's use of China-based support staff for DoD cloud

The Pentagon has formally kiboshed Microsoft's use of China-based employees to support Azure cloud services deployed by US government agencies, and it's demanding Microsoft do more of its own digging to determine whether any sensitive data was compromised. 

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced the change in policy Thursday. He said that even though Microsoft designed its policy of using staff based behind the Great Firewall to comply with government contracting rules, it was still an unacceptable risk.

"It blows my mind that I'm even saying these things … [and] that we ever allowed it to happen," Hegseth said of the so-called "digital escorts program." 

ProPublica first reported in July Microsoft was using engineers based in China to support the DoD's Azure use. Those engineers were being remotely supervised by US "escorts," whom Microsoft said are all US citizens with government security clearances. Hegseth said he intended to ...