Short on specific details, Hegseth\u2019s order enlists the CIO \u2014 with the support of the department\u2019s heads of acquisition and sustainment, intelligence and security, and research and engineering \u2014 to \u201ctake immediate actions to ensure to the maximum extent possible that all information technology capabilities, including cloud services, developed and procured for DoD are reviewed and validated as secure against supply chain attacks by adversaries such as China and Russia.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hegseth first referenced his order in a video posted to X<\/a> on Friday, in which he said, \u201csome tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services,\u201d calling for a \u201ctwo-week review\u201d to make sure that isn\u2019t happening anywhere else in the department\u2019s tech supply chains. <\/p>\n The secretary, in both his video and the new memo, stopped short of calling out Microsoft specifically. However, a spokesperson for the company has since stated publicly<\/a> that it has made changes to \u201cassure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is obviously unacceptable, especially in today\u2019s digital threat environment,\u201d Hegseth said in the Friday video, claiming that the system at the center of the incident is \u201ca legacy system created over a decade ago during the Obama administration.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe have to ensure the digital systems that we use here at the Defense Department are ironclad and impenetrable, and that\u2019s why today I\u2019m announcing that China will no longer have any involvement whatsoever in our cloud services.\u201d<\/p>\n The memo itself calls on the department to \u201cfortify existing programs and processes utilized within the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to ensure that adversarial foreign influence is appropriately eliminated or mitigated and determine what, if any, additional actions may be required to address these risks.\u201d Specifically, it cites the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) \u2014 the final rule for which, as of Wednesday, is undergoing regulatory review<\/a> with the Office of Management and Budget \u2014 acting CIO Katie Arrington\u2019s new Software Fast Track program<\/a>, and the FedRAMP process as existing efforts the Pentagon CIO should rely on to ensure the department\u2019s tech is secure.<\/p>\n Within 15 days of the order\u2019s signing, DOD\u2019s Office of the CIO must issue additional implementing guidance on the matter, led by department CISO Dave McKeown.<\/p>\n On top of that, it taps the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security to \u201creview and validate personnel security practices and insider threat programs of the DIB and cloud service providers to the maximum extent possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tWritten by Billy Mitchell![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/48020813533_d9faa6382e_o-copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tBilly Mitchell is Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of Scoop News Group’s editorial brands.
\n
\nHe oversees operations, strategy and growth of SNG’s award-winning tech publications, FedScoop, StateScoop, CyberScoop, EdScoop and DefenseScoop.
\n
\nPrior to joining Scoop News Group in early 2014, Billy embedded himself in Washington, DC’s tech startup scene for a year as a tech reporter at InTheCapital, now known as DC Inno.
\n
\nAfter earning his degree at Virginia Tech and winning the school’s Excellence in Print Journalism award, Billy received his master’s degree from New York University in magazine writing while interning at publications like Rolling Stone.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a directive late last week ordering the Pentagon\u2019s chief information officer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[144,7253,27565,191,27566,27567,27568,1281,1572,26928,74],"class_list":["post-33033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-computing","tag-china","tag-cloud","tag-cmmc-2-0","tag-computing","tag-dave-mckeown","tag-department-of-defense-dod","tag-katie-arrington","tag-microsoft","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-supply-chain","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}