Microsoft has decided to prohibit engineers based in China from offering technical support to American defense clients, particularly the Department of Defense, which utilizes its cloud platform Azure. This was reported by Tom's Hardware.

This decision follows an investigation by ProPublica, which uncovered the involvement of Chinese professionals in supporting the Pentagon’s cloud services, potentially posing cybersecurity risks to the US.

According to Microsoft representative Frank Shaw, the company has altered its approach to technical support for government clients to ensure that no engineering team from China has access to projects associated with the Department of Defense or other government agencies. Previously, Chinese engineers operated under the supervision of so-called "digital custodians" from the US, who often had lower technical qualifications.

Azure serves as a key revenue stream for Microsoft, contributing over a quarter of the company's total profit. In 2019, Microsoft won a $10 billion Pentagon contract, which was canceled in 2021. In 2022, the company secured new cloud contracts alongside Amazon, Google, and Oracle worth up to $9 billion.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described the situation as "unacceptable" and promised to review other systems for similar risks. Microsoft has assured that it will continue to work with the US government, adapting its security protocols to address emerging threats.