Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the Trump administration is ending an “Obama-Biden” program that exposed “sensitive DOD cloud systems” to Chinese coders.
In a video message shared Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, Hegseth explained that the Pentagon was notified last month of an “Obama-Biden era legacy program” known as “Digital Escorts.” The secretary of defense noted that Microsoft used Chinese coders who were remotely supervised by contractors in the United States to maintain sensitive cloud systems for the Department of Defense for almost 10 years.
Hegseth warned that while the Obama-Biden program was designed to follow contracting rules, the program exposed the Pentagon to “unacceptable risk.” The secretary of defense suggested that giving Chinese workers access to Pentagon cloud systems goes against common sense and “America First” policies.
After being notified regarding the Department of Defense program, Hegseth said he launched an “immediate review” of the security issue.
“The use of Chinese Nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments? It’s over,” Hegseth said. “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. This audit will be free of charge for U.S. 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,” Hegseth added. “These investigations will help us determine the impact of this Digital Escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out.”
In addition to the investigations, Hegseth explained that the software vendors who contract with the Department of Defense will be required to “identify and terminate any Chinese involvement” in the Pentagon’s systems. Hegseth emphasized that the Trump administration expects vendors who contract with the Pentagon to prioritize the national security of the United States.
“I’m committed, like the president is, to ensuring that our national security networks are secure,” Hegseth said in Wednesday’s video. “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 gonna follow all the way through the tape to make sure that this is addressed.”
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Author: Timothy Frudd
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