Microsoft has taken this measure out of concern that having Chinese engineers working in this sector could pose a risk to US national security.
The US software behemoth Microsoft has announced that the US Department of Defence will no longer rely on Chinese engineers to support the Pentagon cloud.
The technology giant made a major change to the company's rules on Friday. Under this change, Chinese engineers will not be able to provide any technical support for cloud services for US defense sector clients, the American media outlet CNBC reported.
Microsoft has made these changes in order to "reduce national and cybersecurity risks" to the US. Because one of the company's large customers is the US Department of Defense, where Microsoft works in cloud services.
Microsoft made the decision after an investigative report by ProPublica revealed that Chinese engineers working in this sector could pose a risk to US national security, CNBC reported.
Microsoft's chief public relations officer, Frank Shaw, posted on social media X on Friday, saying, "Earlier this week, we made changes to our support system for the US government as a service provider in reaction to worries expressed regarding foreign engineers operating under US oversight. This is to make sure that no Chinese engineers are offering technical assistance for the cloud or associated services used by the US Department of Defence.
The impact of Microsoft's change has been felt in the company's Azure cloud services division. Analysts say this division generates more than 25 percent of Microsoft's total revenue. Which means that Azure is now bigger than US search giant Google Cloud but smaller than US e-commerce giant Amazon Web Services.
Microsoft said in its latest quarterly earnings report that it earns a lot of revenue from government contracts. Additionally, US-based clients accounted for more than half of the company's $70 billion in first-quarter revenue.
This is a big Company called Microsoft won a $10 billion defense cloud contract on The 2019. However, the Pentagon canceled the contract in 2021 due to a legal battle.
Then in 2022, the US Department of Defense awarded a cloud contract worth a maximum of $90 billion to four companies, Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft.
According to a ProPublica report, some "digital escorts" or supervisors in the US kept an eye on the work of Microsoft's Chinese Azure engineers. How-ever, these "digital escorts" typically lack the technical know-how of Chinese engineers.
The report also found that the system could increase the risk of cyberattacks from China. Because it is difficult for the United States to fully control everything.
There is a Full Hd video that was uploaded to X-Post on Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "This is totally unacceptable, especially in today's digital threat environment."
Pete also described such a system as “a legacy system created almost a decade ago during the Obama administration.”
Hegseth also said that the US Department of Defense will now review the entire system to find out if there are any more risky activities.
Nevertheless, Microsoft first assured ProPublica that its workers and subcontractors are operating in compliance with US government laws.
