Pentagon orders full audit into China-based DoD cloud engineers

The Pentagon has launched a full review of Chinese nationals' involvement in managing sensitive U.S. military cloud services after the defense secretary said contractors based in China helped maintain Department of Defense systems for nearly a decade. In a video statement on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he had ordered a third party audit of a Microsoft program known as Digital Escorts and directed the department to open parallel investigations into the program and the individual engineers who participated.

Hegseth said the review was prompted by a July investigative report that described China-based coders remotely providing technical work on Defense Department cloud systems while U.S. employees with limited technical training acted as intermediaries. "The use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments is over," he said, adding that the Pentagon had issued a formal letter of concern to Microsoft and would require all DoD software vendors to identify and end any Chinese involvement in defense systems.

The independent audit, Hegseth said, will include examination of code and submissions by Chinese nationals and will be provided free...