La Derecha Diario In the past 10 years, China has infiltrated the US Department of Defense
According to a report, over the past ten years, the Pentagon has been operationally compromised by infiltrations from the CCP
A report published on July 15 by ProPublica has revealed an alarming security gap within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for nearly a decade.
Thus, Microsoft engineers based in China have had access to key systems hosted in the Pentagon's cloud. This situation was not the result of a cyberattack or infiltration, but was formally authorized as part of Microsoft's global technical support model.
According to the report, these engineers participated in system maintenance tasks that handle data classified as high impact, including sensitive information about military operations.
Durante una década China se infiltró en los sistemas del Departamento de Defensa
The incident represents a serious vulnerability in U.S. national security. Although the DoD requires strict citizenship or residency requirements for personnel with access to classified data, Microsoft's outsourcing scheme allowed these requirements to be bypassed.
In practice, the United States ended up entrusting access to critical systems to citizens of a country with a proven history of espionage and cyberattacks against U.S. interests during Democratic administrations.
The case highlights the risks faced by the U.S. government when working with private technology providers that, for reasons of cost efficiency, transfer operational functions to countries like China.
China's espionage record
Last December, Chinese hackers breached BeyondTrust, a company that provides cybersecurity to several U.S. agencies, gaining access to Department of the Treasury workstations.
China has also been accused of hacking Microsoft's email systems to steal official documents, including the emails of Biden's Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo.
In March of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice formally charged several hackers linked to China's Ministry of State Security with stealing sensitive data from defense contractors.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Asian country illegally obtained information about the U.S. F-35 fighter jet, which enabled the accelerated development of its own fifth-generation fighter aircraft, the J-31.
Preparation for war
This scandal exposes structural failures in public procurement processes and in the management of national cybersecurity.
Beyond conventional espionage, China has moved to a more sophisticated strategy known as "operational preparation of the battlefield," which involves preemptively infiltrating critical U.S. infrastructure.
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