Tech giant Microsoft is facing mounting scrutiny after explosive allegations from Navy whistleblower Tom Schiller surfaced in an interview with journalist Laura Loomer. According to Schiller, Microsoft allowed China-based engineers to provide technical support for US Department of Defense (DoD) cyber systems via its Government Azure cloud platform, potentially giving Chinese personnel access to highly sensitive military information for over a decade.
Loomer shared the claims in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Microsoft had enabled “full access to classified information out of the Pentagon” through its support structure and that this practice had been authorised during the Obama administration.
“This is unacceptable,” Loomer wrote. “Microsoft needs to be criminally investigated.”
Microsoft’s statement
Microsoft’s Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw acknowledged the concerns and confirmed policy changes.
In a statement, Shaw wrote, “In response to concerns raised earlier this week about US-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for US government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD government cloud and related services.”
While Microsoft did not deny that such arrangements had occurred in the past, the company emphasised its renewed commitment to security and said it would work with national security partners to review and tighten its protocols.
Did Microsoft compromise US national security?
Microsoft has long been a key player in US government technology contracts. In 2019, the company won a controversial $10 billion cloud contract from the Pentagon under the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program. However, the deal was canceled in 2021 following a legal battle with Amazon. The following year, Microsoft was awarded a portion of a $9 billion multi-vendor cloud services contract, again placing it at the heart of US defense IT infrastructure.
According to Microsoft’s latest quarterly earnings report, more than half of its $70 billion in Q1 revenue comes from customers in the United States, highlighting the importance of its relationship with federal agencies.
