In a significant update, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth exposed a Department of Defense (DoD) program called Digital Escorts, which he revealed employed Chinese coders, supervised by U.S. contractors, to support sensitive DoD cloud systems for nearly a decade. Pointing to the obvious risk, he demanded a third-party audit of the program at no cost to taxpayers and sent a strongly worded letter to Microsoft.
For context, Hegseth explained that the DoD is investigating the involvement of Chinese nationals to assess potential code vulnerabilities in vital US systems. He reiterated that it is indispensable for the end of Chinese participation in DoD systems, prioritizing U.S. national security over corporate profits
In any case, Hegseth began his comments by explaining how this program came to be. “Last month, the Department of Defense was made aware of an Obama-Biden era legacy program called Digital escorts. For nearly a decade, Microsoft has used Chinese coders remotely supervised by us contractors to support sensitive DoD cloud systems,” he explained.
Building on this point, he said that the program was a massive and unacceptable risk to America. Hegseth noted, “The program was designed to comply with contracting rules, but it exposed the department to unacceptable risk. I mean, if you’re thinking America first and common sense, this doesn’t pass either of those tests.”
Continuing his confident response, Hegset described his next steps.”So I initiated an immediate review of this vulnerability, and I want to report our initial findings on the use of Chinese nationals in the Service Department of Defense cloud environments. It’s over. We’ve issued a formal letter of concern to Microsoft documenting this breach of trust, and we’re requiring a third-party audit of Microsoft’s digital escort program, including the code and the submissions by Chinese nationals,” he declared.
Additionally, Hegeth made sure that this would not cost the taxpayer anything, saying, ” This audit will be free of charge for US taxpayers. I’m also tasking the Department of Defense experts with a separate investigation of the digital escort program and the Chinese Microsoft employees that were involved in it.”
Explaining that this practice will not be allowed in any defence industry contracts, he noted, “Additionally, all Department of Defense software vendors will identify and terminate any Chinese involvement in DOD systems. It blows my mind that I’m even saying these things. It’s such common sense that we ever allowed it to happen.”
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Bringing his comments to a close, Hegseth tied this movr to the Trump agenda. “I’m committed, like the president is, to ensuring that our national security networks are secure. Again, it’s America first, and it’s common sense. This never should have happened in the first place, but once we found out about it, we’ve attacked it aggressively from the beginning, and we’re going to follow all the way through the tape to make sure that this is addressed. So DoD is working in conjunction, as well with our partners in the rest of the federal government to ensure that all US networks are protected. God bless you,” he declared.
Featured image from embedded video