The Pentagon will check whether engineers from China have access to the US Department of Defense systems. Pete Hegseth, the head of the US defense department, wrote about this on his X page.
Foreign engineers - from any country, including, of course, China - should never be allowed to service or access Department of Defense systems.
What preceded
The Pentagon chief's statement came after Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Hegseth following a publication this week in the investigative journalism outlet ProPublica.
The report detailed Microsoft's use of Chinese engineers to work on US military computing systems under the supervision of American "digital escorts" hired through subcontractors who have access to classified information but often lack the technical skills to assess whether the Chinese engineers' work poses a cyber threat.
You are right, Senator. I completely agree. Our team is already looking into this matter as quickly as possible.
Microsoft declined to comment on the situation. The company, a major US government contractor, has had its systems breached by Chinese and Russian hackers. ProPublica reported that the company disclosed its practices to the US government during the authorization process.
Cotton asked the US military to provide a list of contractors using Chinese personnel and additional information on how American "digital escorts" are trained to detect suspicious activity.
The US government recognizes that China's cyber capabilities pose one of the most aggressive and dangerous threats to the United States, as evidenced by intrusions into our critical infrastructure, telecommunications networks, and supply chains.
According to him, the American military "must defend against all potential threats in its supply chain, including those coming from subcontractors."
Addition
The United States developed a low-cost LUCAS combat drone designed to compete with Iran's Shahed-136. The system, created by SpektreWorks, is ready for production and integration with US forces.