The digital escort fraud: another major Pentagon security failure
It’s risky to outsource security to private contractors who depend on foreign revenues to support their bottom lines
by Stephen Bryen
July 21, 2025
Microsoft was caught with its pants down in a brilliant exposé by ProPublica that said that a major part of the Defense Department’s Cloud Computer system was run by Chinese engineers and monitored by so-called digital escorts who supposedly looked out for any compromise of DOD information. Now, when Senator Tom Cotton called Defense Secretary Hegseth’s attention to the mess, Microsoft withdrew the Chinese engineers and pretended everything was fixed.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Back in April, 2018 I participated at the Hudson Institute in a special panel review of the then-Pentagon plan to transition all its heritage computer databases to a single computer cloud. (Watch the full video here.) The Pentagon plan was to shut down the old computer systems after the cloud was up and running. DOD claimed that the cloud would be easier to maintain than a number of separate computers, and more secure.
DOD’s problem is that it has done a poor job on cyber security for years – and DOD contractors and sub-contractors, operating under weak departmental guidance, have been even worse.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/07/the-digital-escort-fraud-another-major-pentagon-security-failure/#
