The Obama and Biden administrations gave us a decoder program with Chinese Nationals as decoders. That is not satire. It is a rather glaring national security risk!
Why not Iranian decoders or Russian while we’re at it? Why bother with code, just CC the Chinese Communists.
The Story
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Chinese coders accessed sensitive Pentagon data through Microsoft and blamed the Biden administration for the security lapse.
Mr. Hegseth disclosed in a video message posted on the Pentagon website Wednesday that the program known as “digital escort” was disclosed last month and has been canceled after a review.
“For nearly a decade, Microsoft has used Chinese coders, remotely supervised by U.S. contractors, to support sensitive [Defense Department] cloud systems,” he said, adding that the program was designed to comply with defense contracting rules.
However, the use of Chinese technicians “exposed the department to unacceptable risk,” he said.
“I mean, if you’re thinking America first and common sense, this doesn’t pass either of those tests,” Mr. Hegseth said.
A formal letter of concern was also sent to Microsoft, calling it a “breach of trust.”
An audit by an outside agency is being conducted to check on software code submitted by Chinese nationals. The Pentagon is also investigating Microsoft’s use of Chinese nationals.
“These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out.”
The Pentagon also had ordered all software vendors to identify and terminate any Chinese involvement in defense networks.
“It blows my mind that I’m even saying these things … [or] that we ever allowed it to happen,” he said. “That’s why we’re attacking so hard.”
The use of Chinese Nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments is over. pic.twitter.com/jZdcHwKho2
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) August 27, 2025
