{"id":36738,"date":"2025-07-25T16:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36738\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T16:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:42:14","slug":"microsoft-tech-support-could-have-exposed-doj-treasury-data-to-foreign-adversaries-propublica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36738\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Tech Support Could Have Exposed DOJ, Treasury Data to Foreign Adversaries \u2014 ProPublica"},"content":{"rendered":"

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories<\/a> as soon as they\u2019re published.<\/p>\n

Last week, Microsoft announced that it would no longer use China-based engineering teams to support the Defense Department\u2019s cloud computing systems, following ProPublica\u2019s investigation of the practice<\/a>, which cybersecurity experts said could expose the government to hacking and espionage.<\/p>\n

But it turns out the Pentagon was not the only part of the government facing such a threat. For years, Microsoft has also used its global workforce, including China-based personnel, to maintain the cloud systems of other federal departments, including parts of Justice, Treasury<\/a> and Commerce<\/a>, ProPublica has found.<\/p>\n

This work has taken place in what\u2019s known as the Government Community Cloud, which is intended for information that is not classified but is nonetheless sensitive. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, the U.S. government\u2019s cloud accreditation organization, has approved GCC to handle \u201cmoderate\u201d impact information \u201cwhere the loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability would result in serious adverse effect on an agency\u2019s operations, assets, or individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s Antitrust Division has used<\/a> GCC to support its criminal and civil investigation and litigation functions, according to a 2022 report. Parts of the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> and the Department of Education<\/a> have also used GCC.<\/p>\n

Microsoft says its foreign engineers working in GCC have been overseen by U.S.-based personnel known as \u201cdigital escorts,\u201d similar to the system it had in place at the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, cybersecurity experts told ProPublica that foreign support for GCC presents an opportunity for spying and sabotage. \u201cThere\u2019s a misconception that, if government data isn\u2019t classified, no harm can come of its distribution,\u201d said Rex Booth, a former federal cybersecurity official who now is chief information security officer of the tech company SailPoint.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Microsoft\u2019s \u201cDigital Escort\u201d Program Could Leave Sensitive Government Info Vulnerable to Espionage. Here\u2019s What to Know.\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWith so much data stored in cloud services \u2014 and the power of AI to analyze it quickly \u2014 even unclassified data can reveal insights that could harm U.S. interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harry Coker, who was a senior executive at the CIA and the National Security Agency, said foreign intelligence agencies could leverage information gleaned from GCC systems to \u201cswim upstream\u201d to more sensitive or even classified ones. \u201cIt is an opportunity that I can\u2019t imagine an intelligence service not pursuing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence<\/a> has deemed China the \u201cmost active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.\u201d Laws there grant the country\u2019s officials broad authority to collect data, and experts say it is difficult for any Chinese citizen or company to meaningfully resist a direct request from security forces or law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Microsoft declined interview requests for this story. In response to questions, the tech giant issued a statement that suggested it would be discontinuing its use of China-based support for GCC, as it recently did for the Defense Department\u2019s cloud systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cMicrosoft took steps last week to enhance the security of our DoD Government cloud offerings. Going forward, we are taking similar steps for all our government customers who use Government Community Cloud to further ensure the security of their data,\u201d the statement said. A spokesperson declined to elaborate on what those steps are.<\/p>\n

The company also said that over the next month it \u201cwill conduct a review to assess whether additional measures are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal departments and agencies that ProPublica found to be using GCC did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The latest revelations about Microsoft\u2019s use of its Chinese workforce to service the U.S. government \u2014 and the company\u2019s swift response \u2014 are likely to fuel a rapidly developing firestorm in Washington<\/a>, where federal lawmakers and the Trump administration are questioning the tech giant\u2019s cybersecurity practices and trying to contain any potential national security fallout. \u201cForeign engineers \u2014 from any country, including of course China \u2014 should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a post on X<\/a> last Friday.<\/p>\n

Last week, ProPublica revealed that Microsoft has for a decade relied on foreign workers \u2014 including those based in China \u2014 to maintain the Defense Department\u2019s computer systems, with oversight coming from U.S.-based digital escorts. But those escorts, we found, often don\u2019t have the advanced technical expertise to police foreign counterparts with far more advanced skills, leaving highly sensitive information vulnerable. In response to the reporting, Hegseth launched a review<\/a> of the practice.<\/p>\n

ProPublica found that Microsoft developed the escort arrangement to satisfy Defense Department officials who were concerned about the company\u2019s foreign employees, given the department\u2019s citizenship requirements for people handling sensitive data. Microsoft went on to win federal cloud computing business and has said in earnings reports<\/a> that it receives \u201csubstantial revenue from government contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Microsoft has said it will stop using China-based tech support for the Defense Department, it declined to answer questions about what would replace it, including whether cloud support would come from engineers based outside the U.S. The company also declined to say whether it would continue to use digital escorts.<\/p>\n

Microsoft confirmed to ProPublica this week that a similar escorting arrangement had been used in GCC \u2014 a dynamic that surprised some former government officials and cybersecurity experts. \u201cIn an increasingly complex digital world, consumers of cloud products deserve to know how their data is handled and by whom,\u201d Booth said. \u201cThe cybersecurity industry depends on clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft said it disclosed details of the GCC escort arrangement in documentation submitted to the federal government as part of the FedRAMP cloud accreditation process. The company declined to provide the documents to ProPublica, citing the potential security risk of publicly disclosing them, and also declined to say whether the China-based location of its support personnel was specifically mentioned in them.<\/p>\n

ProPublica contacted other major cloud services providers to the federal government to ask whether they use China-based support. A spokesperson for Amazon Web Services said in a statement that \u201cAWS does not use personnel in China to support federal contracts.\u201d A Google spokesperson said in a statement that \u201cGoogle Public Sector does not have a Digital Escort program. Instead, its sensitive systems are supported by fully trained personnel who meet the U.S. government\u2019s location, citizenship and security clearance requirements.\u201d Oracle said it \u201cdoes not use any Chinese support for U.S. federal customers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[191,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-36738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36738","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=36738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}