An investigation by ProPublica revealed that Microsoft has been employing engineers based in China to help maintain U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) computer systems for nearly a decade. These engineers remotely instruct American personnel, referred to as "digital escorts," who often lack the technical expertise to adequately monitor the work or identify malicious code. This arrangement has raised concerns about the vulnerability of some of the nation’s most sensitive data to potential hacking by China, a leading cyber adversary. Despite warnings and the Pentagon's ban on foreign citizens accessing highly sensitive data, Microsoft continued this practice with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel. Following widespread reporting and scrutiny, Microsoft announced it would cease using China-based engineers for technical support on DoD cloud systems. The company confirmed that China-based engineering teams will no longer be involved in projects related to U.S. military cloud services, a decision that came after a Pentagon review and public criticism from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts.